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OUTLINES 



OF 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 



BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 



BY THE 



REV. WILLIAM HENRY HQARE, M.A. 

LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, 
CAMBRIDGE. 



LONDON: 
JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. 

MDCCCLII. 



yvY 8 



LONDON: 

SAV1LL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS. 

CHAWDOS STREET. 



PREFACE. 



As the title of this book sufficiently explains itself, it is 
merely necessary to observe, that, in order to bring it 
within reasonable compass, the biographical notices 
have been restricted to as few as possible. An excep- 
tion has, however, been made, whenever it appeared 
that the lives of individuals belonged essentially to the 
history of the times in which they lived. Thus Charle- 
magne, the Gregories, WicklifFe, and such other re- 
markable characters, will be found noticed at greater 
length ; while a brief account of others, omitted in the 
text, will be occasionally supplied in the notes. 

It is hoped that these Outlines may thus prove a 
convenient manual, both for furnishing the student with 
the principal facts of Ecclesiastical History before the 
[Reformation, and for pointing out their bearing on the 
subsequent history of reformed churches, and of our 
own apostolic branch in particular. For the authorities, 
except where they are given in the text, the reader is 
referred to Soames' edition of Mosheim, and to the 
valuable work of Mr. Wadding ton, which two have 
been very fully consulted. Chronologies of the Roman 
empire, before and after its division into East and 
West, and also of the new empire of the West, after 
its re- construction under Charlemagne, will be found 



IV PREFACE. 

appended to each part. Some other chronological tables, 
and also questions for the nse of younger readers, are 
added at the end. But in times when, in the compli- 
cated relations of the church, the appeal is so often 
made to first principles, it is hoped even the more 
advanced inquirer may find something here to assist 
him in forming clearer and more definite views, par- 
ticularly on the points in controversy between the 
Romanists and ourselves. And with this aim the 
Author commends his labours to the blessing of that 
God, who has set His church, like the branches of the 
golden candlestick in the temple of old, to diffuse the 
light of the blessed Gfospei throughout the world. 

W. H. H. 
London, 1852. 



OUTLINES 

OF 

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



PAET I. 



FROM THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD, TO THE 
CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 



A.D. 33 A.D, 312. 



Chapter I. 

Acts of the Apostles— Opposition of the Jews — Conversion of the 
Gentiles — Destruction of Jerusalem — Barchochebas — Peculiar 
history of St. Paul — Antioch — Alexandria — Jerusalem — Other 
Apostolic churches — St. Paul, and the British isles — St. Peter — 
Martyrdom of St. James — Death of St. John, the last of the 
apostles. 

nPHE three first centuries are, perhaps, the most inte- 
-*■ resting period in ecclesiastical history. Truth and 
error, the light of revelation and the darkness of 
heathen superstition, were then brought into the most 
direct and open collision. The faith of the Cross was 
assailed by every species of opposition ; yet gloriously 
triumphed over all impediments, and bowed even em- 
pires to its sway. 

Of the earlier events, we possess an inspired record 
in the Acts of the Apostles, composed by the evange- 
list St. Luke, who himself accompanied St. Paul over 
a considerable part of the countries in which he 
laboured. We there find, that at first the greatest 
enemies of the truth were those who should have 
been its best friends. The Jewish people were so 
elated by a notion of their own superiority, and so 

B 



2 JEWISH PREJUDICES. 

proud of tlieir natural descent from Abraham, that, 
instead of putting that spiritual sense on the promises 
which the patriarch himself had done, they looked 
down with contempt on all other people of the earth, 
and expected in their Messiah some great temporal 
prince, who should deliver them from the yoke of 
the Romans. This sentiment appears to have infected 
even the chosen apostles of our Lord ; — so blinded 
are men by early prejudice, and so apt to be swayed 
by a principle, however erroneous, which has once 
taken strong possession of their minds. Yet, the uni- 
versal extension of the Christian faith had formed no 
obscure part of those very prophecies, which were 
commonly received among the Jews ; and to the Chris- 
tians it was the express injunction of their Divine 
Master, ' to go into all nations baptizing' and bring- 
ing them unto the faith of the Gospel. The more 
effectually, however, to remove so mistaken but deeply 
rooted a prejudice, it pleased God by a special miracle 
to enlighten the eyes of the apostle Peter, and to show 
him that* ■ in every nation he that feareth God and 
worketh righteousness is accepted with him.' And 
after this time, there is no point more assiduously 
pressed by the writers of the JNTew Testament, than the 
equality of Jew and Gentile under the Christian cove- 
nant; and that it was the express design of the Almighty, 
to gather a new people out of all kindreds, and nations, 
and tongues, into the one Catholicf fold of Christ. The 
kindly spirit of the Gospel did indeed lead Christians 
for awhile to treat with peculiar deference their Jewish 
countrymen, looking up to them as to their elder 
brethren in the faith ;J and in the same spirit they 

Acts x. 35. 

f i.e. universal; comprehending .Jew and Gentile alike. 

X How far the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were still binding, 
was indeed the first question which came before a general meeting, 
or council of the church. — Vide Acts xv. 



SIEGE AND FALL OF JERUSALEM. 8 

continued to frequent the temple and observe the 
feasts. But as soon as this moderation was abused, 
and some began to insist on circumcision as essential 
to salvation, a firmer tone was assumed, and the rites 
of Judaism more and more fell into disuse. The faith 
of Christ shone out in its native lustre ; many # thou- 
sands of the Jews l themselves believed,' and ' of the 
Priests a great company.' 

But as multitudes also persisted in unbelief, the 
hand of God at length visibly interfered in favour of 
the truth. The stone which the builders rejected, was 
destined to become the head of the corner, and a new 
and more glorious temple to be erected upon the ruins 
of that mere worldly and material sanctuary, which 
had already served its purpose and was about to vanish 
away. The obduracy and disappointed pride of the 
Jew was not left to wreak itself with impunity on the 
innocent and unoffending Christian. Christ had threat- 
ened them, unless they repented, with a special act of 
judgment, and upon that generation the judgment fell. 
It was less than forty years from the time when the 
prediction was uttered,f that its awful accomplishment 
came to pass. After a war of three years, a Roman 
army lay encamped under the walls of Jerusalem. And 
such were the horrors of the siege which ensued, and 
such the desperate valour of the infatuated Jews, that 
even Titus, the Eoman general, exclaimed, that without 
the aid of an offended God fighting on his side, he 
never could have reduced the city. It was the wish of 
the conqueror to have spared the temple, but his 
laudable desires were frustrated by the madness of 
the enemy. Eire and sword were carried into every 
quarter ; neither temple nor city were spared from the 



* Acts vi. 7 ; xxi. 20. 
t Matthew xxiii. 86—38 ; xxiv. 2. Mark xiii. 2. Luke xix. 
41—44. 



4 LABOUKS OF THE APOSTLES. 

general conflagration. The sacred utensils and many- 
captives were carried in triumph to Koine, where they 
are still represented on the arch of Titus — a monument 
at once of the truth of the history, and of the righteous 
judgment of God. An attempt, in the time of Julian, 
to rebuild the temple, is credibly reported to have been 
hindered by hot balls of fire issuing up from the ground. 
The Jews stirred up a fresh war against the Romans, 
but without success; and the rebellion of Barcho- 
chebas* (a.d. 120), who imposed upon many by the 
pretence of being the Messiah, may be regarded as a 
last convulsive struggle to regain their national inde- 
pendence. Thus speedily and surely were the predic- 
tions of our Lord fulfilled ; and thus signally was the 
guilt of that people punished, both for rejecting the 
Messiah, and for so cruelly persecuting those who re- 
ceived Him. 

About the same time we find the apostles labouring 
in different countries of the Gentiles ; one pre-eminent 
above the rest, both for the manner of his conversion, 
and for the extraordinary difficulties and dangers which 
he encountered in the execution of his office. The 
greater part of the Acts, as is well-known to the atten- 
tive reader, is occupied with the history of St. Paul ; 
how he went first over the provinces of Asia, and 
thence to the most famous cities of Greece, At last, 
after many such missionary labours over the same or 
adjoining districts, he was brought prisoner to Rome, 
where the sacred narrative leaves him. Returning to 
the other apostles, we find them at first uniting their 
labours in the formation of the churches in Judaea, 
Samaria, and parts of Syria : at Antioch, the residence 
of the Roman Presidents of Syria, they met with very 



• Known also as a fierce persecutor of the Christians. Bossuet 
makes him out to be the 'man of sin,' predicted 2 These, ii. 3; 
but, there are many parts of St. Paul's description in that chapter* 
which arc clearly not answered by Barchochebas. 



ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE OF THE WEST. 5 

signal success; and 'the disciples were first called 
Christians'* in that city. Starting thence, but always 
in close communion with the Mother Church of Jeru- 
salem, they branched off in different directions to new 
spheres of duty. We read of Andreio in Scythia ; 
Philip in Upper Asia and Phrygia: Matthew and 
Bartholomew in India, ^Ethiopia, and Armenia ; Jude 
in Mesopotamia; Simon in Egypt and Cyrene; Thomas 
in Parthia and Mesopatamia, where he planted a church, 
and was buried at Edessa. The Church of Alexandria 
boasts of St. Mark for its founder, and probably this 
Evangelist founded also the celebrated schools in that 
city. The two brothers of Jude, James,f and Simeon, 
became successively bishops of Jerusalem, where each 
suffered martyrdom in a good old age. 

But the labours of St. Paul are the most fully 
recorded, not only in Scripture, but also in other 
ecclesiastical records of that period. It is to him 
especially that Clemens Eomanus (bishop of Home, 
and 6 author,' says Dr. Burton, ' of the only Christian 
writing now extant, which was composed in the first 
century, besides the books of the JNew Testament') 
assigns the honour of ' preaching righteousness through 
the whole world;' and 'in so doing,' he says, 'he 
went to the utmost bounds of the west.' Erom this it 
is inferred, that when Eusebius speaks of ' some having 
passed over' the ocean, and preached the Gospel in 
those which are called the - British Isles > he alludes 
to St. Paul. But of St. Peter visiting the west, neither 
these nor any other writers speak anything with cer- 
tainty. This apostle seems rather to have confined 
himself to the more eastern regions, and especially to 
those ' strangers of Pontus, Galatea, Cappadocia, Asia, 



* Acts xi. 26. 
f This James was James the Less, and one of the Apostles. The 
elder James suffered martyrdom in the reign of Herod. See Acts 3 - 
xii. 2. 

B2 



G ST. PETER, AND ST. JAMES. 

and Bithynia, whom lie addresses in his first Epistle. 
He was also for a long time resident in Antioch, and he 
visited Alexandria in Egypt. Both these apostles met 
at Eome, and suffered martyrdom together; but of St. 
Peter, Lactantius tells us, ' that he came not to Rome 
till the reign of Nero, and not long before his mar- 
tyrdom,' (a.d. 68.) 

The death of St. James, first bishop of Jerusalem, 
is worthy of mention ; more especially as we have the 
account of it in the words of an Hebrew convert of the 
very next age,* quoted by Eusebius. ' This blessed 
apostle had gained for himself, even among the un- 
believers, the surname of the Just, by his unblamable 
life of mortification and constant prayer. But the evil 
passions of the more zealous of the Pharisees were 
aroused, and they resolved on an attempt to seduce 
him to apostasy. He was placed in an exalted situ- 
ation in the temple on the Eeast of the Passover, and 
required to persuade the assembled multitude against 
the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus. He availed him- 
self of the opportunity to bear witness to the truth of 
it ; proclaiming aloud his session at the right-hand of 
power, and his future advent in the clouds of heaven. 
Many were convinced of the truth. The Scribes and 
Pharisees, maddened with disappointment, and furious 
at the success of his preaching, resolved on instant 
vengeance. The holy man was cast down headlong 
from the battlements, and stoned ; but he had space to 
fall upon his knees, and pray for the pardon of his 
murderers, after the example and in the words of his 
Divine Master, saying, * I entreat Thee, O Lord God 
the Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do.* Wounded, bruised, and bleeding, his life was still 



* Hegesippus, For the following account see William tfsHolt/ City, 
Vol. i. p. 11*7. JjuscO, ii. 23. 



APOSTOLIC DISCIPLINE. 7 

whole in him, when one of the bystanders smote him 
on the head with a fuller's club, and terminated at once 
his sufferings and his life.' 

St. John appears to have outlived all the apostles. 
He is said to have been exposed to a cruel death at 
Home, by being plunged into a vessel of boiling oil, 
from which, however, he came out unhurt. It is cer- 
tain that, under Domitian, he suffered banishment to 
the Isle of Patmos, where he saw and wrote the re- 
markable visions of the Apocalypse. As the Christian 
exiles regained their liberty upon the accession of 
Nerva, it is probable that this Apostle returned in 
peace, and lived to a good old age in the midst of the 
churches which he had long superintended in Ephesus 
and the adjoining districts of Asia Minor. Before his 
death, he is said to have been carried round the church, 
bestowing his blessing on the people, and calling out to 
them all, { Little children, love one another.' 



Chapteb II. 

Apostolic discipline — Formation of new churches — Bishops, Pres- 
byters, Deacons, Prophets — Deaconesses, Widows — Apostolic 
doctrine — Apostles' creed — Canon of Scriptures — Liturgies — 
Holy days — Sunday^E aster- day— -Whitsunday — Baptism, and 
the Supper of the Lord— Confirmation — Excommunication — 
Confession — Prayers to Saints. 

We must not leave the apostolic period, without ob- 
serving upon the method by which the apostles usually 
proceeded in the settlement of new churches. To every 
city or town where they came, they took with them 
some faithful disciple, whom they afterwards left in 
charge of the church or churches around. In other 
cases, they chose fit persons on the spot, or approved 
such a3 were set before them. The ' ciders' thus 



8 THREE ORDERS IN THE MINISTRY. 

'ordained in every church, ,# usually became bishops 
of that, or of some other place where their labours were 
most required. The name of bishop is indeed generally 
admitted to have been shared by the next inferior order 
of ministers, the presbyter or priest ; but, however this 
might be, a distinction of offices had certainly been 
observed from the beginning, as is evident from the 
Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus. And ac- 
cordingly, on the death of the apostles, this title was 
reserved exclusively for those who succeeded to their 
office. The s angel' (as St. John in the Revelation 
designates the bishops of the seven churches) is of the 
same signification as c apostle ;' each implying a 
messenger sent from heaven. Subordinate to these, 
came the two orders of presbyter and deacon ; the latter 
being originally appointed for the discharge of the more 
secular parts of ministerial duty. (See Acts vi. 1 — 5.) 
The prophets appear to have been a less regular class 
of teachers, inspired with the gift of tongues for the 
purpose of preaching (for so the word 'prophecy' 
frequently signifies), or explaining the Scriptures. 
There were not only deacons, but deaconesses, for the 
performance of many minor works of usefulness and 
charity. They had also a class of widows, whom, how- 
ever, by the advice of St. Paul, they received not into 
that company under threescore years of age. 1 Tim. 
5,9. 

In the matter of doctrine, the apostolic teaching was 
doubtless plain and simple. It appears probable, that 
some short and comprehensive form was in use, for the 
convenience of instructing the new converts, and that 
such form was afterwards expanded into the Apostles' 
creed ; their own immediate authority supplying what 
was wanting to the fuller explication of the faith. The 



* Acts xiv. 23. 



APOSTLES' CREED — KULE OF FAITH. 9 

substance of the whole they have left in writing, in the 
epistles which they addressed to particular churches or 
the bishops of the same. These, in a short time, were 
collected into one volume, together with the four 
Gospels and the other books of the sacred canon ; 
where they remain for ever the rule of faith to the 
church. But because it was an abridgment of the 
necessary articles of Christian faith contained in Holy 
Scripture, the creed itself is often, by the early fathers, 
spoken of, as in a manner, the * rule of faith.' 

The liturgies ascribed to St. James and St. Mark,* 
are not to be taken as the genuine compositions of these 
apostles ; nor the * Apostolic Constitutions and Canons' 
as their work. But it is highly probable, that some such 
formsf were in use from the earliest times : especially 
as such usage appears most agreeable both to Jewish 
precedent, and to the prevailing habit of all eastern 
countries, and it had been expressly sanctioned by our 
Lord himself in the prayer which he gave to his 
disciples. 

The same may be said of set times and places of 
public worship. In the Acts we find them not unfre- 
quently alluded to, — as where we read of ' the dis- 
ciples at Troas coming together on the first day of the 
week to break bread ;'J and ' Saul and Barnabas a 
whole year assembling themselves with the church.' 
The same appears from several other passages of 
Scripture, § and we read, that among those upper rooms 
of houses, which were usually resorted to for this 
purpose in the East, that engaged by our blessed Lord 
for the last Passover, and where he instituted the Holy 



* Both of these Mr. Palmer supposes anterior at latest to the 
council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451. 

t See Palmer's Origines Liturgicce, vol. i. pp. 42, 44, 92, &c. 

t See Acts xx. 7 ; xi. 26. 

§ See 1 Cor. xi. IS. 20 ; Heb. x. 25. 



10 THE LORD's-DAY, EASTER-DAY, WHITSUNDAY. 

Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, was long held in 
peculiar veneration. 

The first day of the week, — as being that on which 
the Saviour rose, — that also on which he appeared, one 
week after, to the whole assembly of his disciples, and 
on which again the Holy Ghost descended upon them 
at the Jewish feast of Pentecost, — was chosen as the 
great weekly festival of the church, and gradually ob- 
tained the name of the Lord's day. The Jewish sabbath 
fell gradually into disuse. 

Besides this, they observed a more solemn annual 
commemoration of the Resurrection on Easter or 
Paschal day ; and of the descent of the Spirit on Whit- 
sunday. 

The Lord's Supper, called from his own action at its 
first institution the ' breaking of the bread,' was ad- 
ministered always on Sunday — sometimes every day, 
and sometimes morning and evening, or whenever an 
opportunity might be had. Different customs prevailed 
on this point in different churches. All received under 
both kinds, minister and people alike. The bread was 
common bread, broken in pieces ; the wine they 
usually mixed with water. None were accounted to 
partake worthily, or to receive any benefit, but those 
who lived piously, and came with true repentance and 
faith. 

Baptism was, in like manner, administered, according 
as occasion required ; but the more solemn seasons of 
Easter and Whitsuntide were preferred for its regular 
administration. Submersion, or dipping in the water, 
was recommended to be used, but was rarely practicable 
at first, and therefore never accounted essential. A 
class of catechumens was held in every church, pre- 
paratory to the rite. But infants were never excluded 
when presented by their parents and relatives. The 
sacrament of baptism was universally followed by the 



SACRAMENTS AND RITES, 11 

rite of confirmation, or laying on of the hands of the 
apostles. In this rite the extraordinary gifts of the 
Holy Spirit were at first conferred, but, when these 
ceased to be necessary, the rite was continued for the 
purpose of procuring a fresh accession of the Spirit's 
ordinary grace ; and, where administered by the bishops, 
or chief pastors after the apostles, it was considered to 
correspond in effect with that originally administered 
by the apostles themselves in the case of the Samaritan 
converts, Acts viii. 14 — 17. 

Of fasts, the earliest we read of was kept in literal 
accordance with those words of our Saviour, # ' the 
Bridegroom shall be taken away from you, and then 
shall ye fast.' The early Christians therefore fasted 
during the time intervening between the afternoon of 
the day of Crucifixion, and the morning of that of the 
Resurrection ; a space of time comprising about forty 
hours. This was very strictly observed, and was called 
from the number of hours, the quadragesimal fast. On 
Wednesdays and Fridays also, they abstained from 
their usual food till three o'clock, and often spent these 
days in prayers, which they called their stations. They 
also fasted in times of public calamity; and when for 
any open and scandalous sin they were in the class of 
public penitents. 

Traces of excommunication {i.e. of separation from the 
society and ordinances of the church) not unfrequently 
occur in the most primitive times. This was agreeable 
to the express words of our Lord, ' If he neglect to 
hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen 
man and a publican. 'f In favour of some kind of 
salutary discipline, we might also adduce the example 
of our Lord, in that significant action whereby he began 
and ended his public ministry in Jerusalem, of ' over- 



* See Matt. ix. 15. t Matt, xyiii. 17. 



12 DEPARTED SAINTS. 

throwing the tables of the money changers, and driving 
them out of the temple.'* 

Private confession, as was natural, was made for 
private offences, according to that of St. James. ' Con- 
fess your faults one to another, brethren, and pray one 
for another.' (Jam. v. 16.) And of our Lord himself, 
in the passage before cited, ' If thy brother trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone; if he shall hear thou hast gained thy 
brother. 'f But for public offences public penance was 
required, and the offender cast out from the congre- 
gation, till he had both made reparation, and showed 
sufficient signs of repentance. And this was in accord- 
ance with the apostolic precept, ' Them that sin 
rebuke before all, that all may fear. 'J 

We have no traces in Scripture, or during the xipo- 
stolic age, of any particular veneration of relics, or any 
prayers to departed saints. "We are enjoined to * follow 
their faith,' and to 'remember' them with all affection, § 
but not to invoke their assistance as intercessors with 
God on our behalf. Even the Apostolic Constitutions 
and Canons, though confessedly a collection of later 
date, make no mention of any such devotions. The 
excessive veneration of holy places, which in after ages 
so much encouraged these devotions, was a thing which 
had not yet grown up in the church. We find no 
mention of even Calvary or the Holy Sepulchre, in the 
whole New Testament, after Christ's ascension. When 
by this event the Messiah was no more personally pre- 
sent with his disciples, they ceased to frequent his tomb 
or to seek the living among the dead. It is the just 
observation of the late bishop Mant, ' That as when 



* See John ii. 11—17; Matt. xxi. 12, 13. ^Ve have further 
proofs in the conduct of the apostles themselves. See 1 Cor. v. 
5—11; lCor.ii.4— 11; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14; ITiin.v. 20; Tit. iii. 10. 

t Matt, xviii. 15. J 1 Tim. v. 20. § Heb. xiii. 7. 



GHOWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHUKCH. 13 

tlie Lord liad buried Moses in the valley of Moab, the 
place of his sepulchre was withh olden from all human 
knowledge, whence his tomb could not be made an 
object with the Israelites of idolatrous worship or super- 
stitious veneration; so the Holy Spirit over-ruled in 
the primitive Christians the natural propensity to the 
feeling of local attachment in respect of our Lord's 
place of burial, fixing their minds on the monuments 
and memorials which he himself had instituted, in the 
sacramental commemoration of his death, in the offices 
of his commissioned ministers, and in the devotional 
assemblies of his people. But whatever be the ex- 
planation, the fact is as we have stated. And the con- 
duct of the primitive Christians in this particular stands 
in memorable contrast with that of succeeding gene- 
rations, whereby an excessive indulgence of the feeling 
of local association has led to many superstitious ob- 
servances, detrimental to the holy simplicity of Christian 
truth/* 



Chapter III. 

Simon Magus and Gnostics — Valentinian, Saturninus, and Basilides 
— Cerinthus and Mcolaitanes — Marcion, Cerdo, Carpocrates—- 
Platonic philosophy — Plotinus, Porphyry, Celsus — Ammonius 
Saccas, and Eclectics — Christian apologists, Tatian, Athenagoras, 
Origen — Manes, Montanus — Ascetics, Encratites — Nazarenes, 
Ebionites — Sabellianism, Paul of Samosata — Novatus, Nova- 
tian — Catholic doctrine and discipline — Allowable differences— 
. Roman arbitration. 

We are now tracing the first lineaments of that great 
society, the Christian Church, which was destined to 
occupy so distinguished a place in the history of the 
world, and to be like a city set upon an hill giving light 
to all around. Deriving its origin from Christ and his 



See Mant'S Primitive Christianity, chap. v. 
C 



14 SIMON MAGUS. 

apostles, based upon his word and sacraments, it 
claims our particular attention while expanding into 
tangible form, and shaping out for itself, under the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, a distinct and regular 
organization. If the records of this period are com- 
paratively scanty, enough is known to impart a very 
correct idea of the general features of the Ante-JSTicene 
Church;* and if we might sometimes wish for a little 
fuller information,f we have the greater reason to attend 
carefully to such as we possess. 

The death of the last of the apostles must needs 
have been an era of special anxiety to the churches. 
But even before this time, some false and heretical 
opinions had begun to corrupt the purity of the truth. 
Simon Magus, a Samaritan, whom we read of in the Acts J 
as receiving baptism of St. Peter, appears soon to have 
thrown off the mask, and become the avowed enemy of 
Christianity. He laboured hard to disseminate his 
false doctrines in the parts of Asia where the apostles 
were most likely to come : allusions to which we may 
perceive in several of the Apostolic Epistles addressed 
to the churches of that district. He held what was 
called the Gnostic§ philosophy, which taught that this 
world was the work of some inferior deity, and not the 
creation of the One Supreme God; they regarded 
matter as the root of all evil; the Creator of this world, 
who was also the Lawgiver and "Ruler of the Jews, and 
whom they called the Demiurge, was not with them 



* i.e. the church before the council of Nice, which was the first 
general council, and convoked by Constantine, a.d. 825. 

f Of Christian writers who can be traced with certainty to the 
age of the apostles, there are but five extant — Ignatius, bishop of 
Antioch, who suffered martyrdom, a.d. 107 (see below, ch. iv. p. 24); 
Poli/carp, bishop of Smyrna ; Clemens, bishop of Rome; St. Barnabas; 
and Hermas. These five are called the Apostolic Fathers. 

% Acts, viii. 

§ From fvuxri?, the Greek word for Tcnoivledge, in which they pre- 
tended to excel all other philosophers. 



CERINTHUS AND OTHER GNOSTICS. 15 

the true God, but a rebel against him; they filled the 
world with a multitude of JEons, or angelic natures, 
endowed with powers approaching those of the divinity 
itself, and they went to such a pitch of absurdity, that 
some of them believed in an exact number of thirty* 
-ZSons, male and female, some reckoned seven 9 f whom 
they considered lords of the seven planets, while others 
carried up the angelic orders to 365, J a number 
answering to the numeral letters in the word Abraxas, 
which was an old Egyptian title of the Supreme Being. 
Such were the preposterous notions of these boasted 
sages. Menander, a native of Samaria, like Simon 
Magus, followed the steps of that heretic; as also 
Cerintkus,§ teaching, particularly, that the acts of the 
body were indifferent, and could not affect the state of 
the soul, thereby opening the door to all kinds of licen- 
tiousness. It was Cerinthus of whom the story is told, 
that St. John being at Ephesus, and meeting him in 
the bath, hurried out of the house and exclaimed, 
" Let us run away, lest even the bath should fall to 
pieces while the enemy of the truth is in it." He was 
of those who, in perfect consistency with the Gnostic 
ideas of matter, taught that Christ did not come in 
actual flesh, or with a real body, but only in the 
appearance of our mortal nature. An allusion to this 
the reader will at once perceive in the Epistle of 
St. John. 1 1 Marcion and Cerdo, in the second century, 
held the same pernicious error. Carpocrates, in the 
third, refined upon it, by affirming that the man Jesus 
became, at his baptism, united to the iEon, whom he 
called Christ. This man added to his heretical opinions 
the most depraved maxims of morality. 



* So Valentinus. f So Saturninus. % So Basilides. 

§ The Nicolaitanes (Eev. ii. 6) are supposed to have been of the 
same sect. 

II 1 Eph. iv. 2, i ; v. 1. 20 ; ii. 7. See also John i. 14. 



16 PLATONIST SCHOOL. 

In these later centuries, however, the Platonic philo- 
sophy, in some deteriorated form, very much displaced 
the Gnostic. Among the professors of it were many 
formidable opponents of Christianity, particularly Celsus, 
Porphyry, and Plotinus.* Ammonius Saccas did much 
harm by teaching that all religions are alike. But 
some even of the Christian writers, in a modified form, 
accepted the Platonic philosophy; such were Tatian,f 
Athenagoras, and Clemens Alexandrinus . To Origen% 
we are indebted for devoting his profound learning, 
and the powers of his great mind, to a fair adjustment 
of the difficulties which this whole question suggests. 
Indeed, of all the Christian advocates and writers of 
that period, it may be said in general, that it was their 
endeavour, after the example of St. Paul, at Athens, 
rather to correct and amend than to discard altogether, 



* Celsus, best known by the treatise of Origen contra Celsum, in 
which he refutes his errors. There is no original work of Celsus 
extant. 

Plotinus, a famous teacher, at Rome and elsewhere, of philosophy 
and rhetoric. He was a disciple of Ammonius, and master of Por- 
phyry. 

Porphyry wrote the life of Pythagoras, and fifteen books against 
Christianity. 

f Tatian, A.D. 172 ; AtJienagoras, 178. 

Clemens, 124. Master of the celebrated school of Alexandria, 
where he succeeded Pantnenus, and was tutor of Origen. 

% Origen, of whom so much has been said as the author of the 
allegorical method of interpretation which afterwards led to the 
scholastic, had at least an earnest love of the Scriptures, which he 
greatly laboured to diffuse, and of which he published a copy in six 
versions, called the Hexapla. Only parts have come down to us. 
He was principal of the famous school of Alexandria ; but having 
fled thence in the persecution under Caracalla, A.r>. 215, he received 
ordination from the bishop of Crcsarcn, and was greatly instrumental 
in the conversion of many wherever he went. Unfortunately, the 
jealousy of his own bishop, the patriarch of Alexandria, was ex- 
cited, and this more than anything led to a suspicion of his ortho- 
doxy. Having witnessed a good confession for many years, he died 
a natural death. On his peculiar opinions, see some excellent 
remarks in Soamcs'8 Mosheim, vol. i. pp. 244 — 217. 



MANICHEAN DOCTRINES. ASCETICS. 17 

what the more ancient philosophers had advanced.* 
And so the question has been left to this day. 

There are other memorable heresies, as that of Mon- 
ianus; and of Manes, in the third century, both repre- 
senting themselves as the promised Paraclete. Manes 
taught, moreover, the pernicious doctrine of two rival 
principles; the principle of light, which he called 
Ormudz, and of darkness, which he called Ahreman; — 
mankind, the offspring of the latter, by means of par- 
ticles stolen from the regions of light. This heresy, 
involving the usual Gnostic blasphemies against the 
Divine Person of our Lord, spread widely in Persia 
and the neighbouring countries, and tried the faith of 
the Eastern church for many centuries. 

The name of Ascetics was rather one of character 
than of sect. They were akin to the JEssenes, among 
the Jews, and, like the puritans of later days, were 
distinguished by a certain austerity of manners, yet 
without withdrawing themselves from the ordinary 
business and a moderate share of the enjoyments of 
life. The Encratites, or Continentes, abstained from 
marriage, and from the use of wines and meat. Of all 
these, it may be said, that many heretics adopted their 
rule of living, and some churchmen. Among the 
former, particularly Montanus and a party among the 
Gnostics. At the same time, there was nothing in 
their opinions at all new or peculiar to the times of 
Christianity. The Platonists and Therapeutae in Egypt 
and the East, were, of old, famous for the same. 
Christianity does not expressly forbid such a mode of 
life as they prescribed; and it is unquestionably better 



* Yet the truths of Christianity often suffered by this endeavour 
to accommodate them to philosophical systems ; and we may per- 
haps apply to the writers of this period the remark made by 
Clemens Alexandrinus with respect to the writings of the ancient 
philosophers (6u T 6 w ai/ kdwdifxov), ' all is not wholesome food.' 
C2 



18 SABELLTANISM. 

than the opposite extreme into which Carpocrates and 
so large a section of the Gnostics fell. But the social 
virtues infinitely outshine the contemplative and the 
morose ; and the general disposition in the Church has 
ever been to regard Asceticism as contrary to the spirit 
of Christ and his Apostles, rather than congenial to it. 

We may appeal to an ancient Father on this head, 
who, answering the accusations brought against Chris- 
tians, upon account of their singularities, says, * How 
can such an accusation lie against those who live 
among you, who share the same fare with you, and 
the same clothing, and have the same common wants 
of life. For we are no Brahmins, nor Indian Gym- 
nosophists; we are no dwellers in the woods, no men 
who have left the common haunts of life; we feel 
deeply the gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and 
Creator; we despise not the enjoyment of any of His 
works; we only desire to moderate this enjoyment in 
such a manner, that we may avoid excess and abuse. 
We therefore inhabit this world in common with you, 
and we make use of baths, of shops, workshops, and 
fairs, and all that is used in the intercourse of life. We 
also carry on, in common with you, navigation, war, 
agriculture, and trade ; we take part in your occupa- 
tions, and our labour* when needful, we give to the 
public service.'* 

Those who persisted in their bigoted attachment to 
the Mosaic ritual, took the name of Nazarenes. The 
JEbionites, so called from their poverty, were a division 
of this sect distinguished by greater strictness. 

The Sabellicms began, in the third century, to deny 
the divine personality of Christ, considering his divinity 
to be some sort of emanation from the Father, put 
forth only for a particular time and purpose. Sabellius 



Tcrtull. Apol c. xlii. quoted in Koee's Ncandcr, vol. I. p. 306. 



SCHISM OF NOVATIAN. — CATHOLIC DOCTRINE. 19 

was associated with other leading names, particularly 
JPrazeas, Ncetus, and Beryllus ; but being himself 
Presbyter of a church in Lybia, and they men of less 
note, the heresy was called after his name, and met, as 
it deserved, the vehement opposition of many eminent 
writers in the church, whose arguments may still be 
read in their works. # 

About the same time Paul of Samosata gained the 
still less enviable distinction of being the first here- 
tical bishop. His opinions savoured strongly of Sabel- 
lianism ; he was bishop of Antioch, and was deposed 
from his office by two successive councils held in that 
city (a.d. 264, and 240). 

Novatus and JSovatian (a.d. 276) set the first ex- 
ample of schism, f by withdrawing from the communion 
of their lawful bishops. The latter even procured 
himself an irregular ordination to the bishopric of 
Rome, against Cornelius, its lawful Bishop. They are 
both to be noted, also, as having divided the church on 
the question as to the treatment of persons who had 
lapsed in times of persecution. This subject will be 
referred to in another chapter* 

To this swarm of heresies the Christians opposed that 
unity of doctrine and discipline which they had derived 
from the apostles. To the orthodox^ communion and 
fellowship they gave the name of Catholic ,§ — to imply 
that their doctrine was the same ' all over the world,' 
— and of Apostolic, to show that it was the same now, 



* We find Sabeliianism attacked by almost all the Christian 
Fathers of that period, as a prominent heresy. 

t Novatus, a Carthaginian presbyter, quarrelled with his bishop, 
Cyprian, and fled to Eome, where he became the friend and sup- 
porter of Novatian. 

% i.e. * those professing the true faith.' 

§ i.e. those who kept to the true and ancient doctrine of the 
church. 

Ii From the Greek words ku$' b\nv t$jv thn l over all the world.' 



20 CATHOLIC DEFINED. 

as it had been in the times of the apostles themselves. 
The learned Dr. Burton speaks thus on this important 
point: — ' The term Catholic was applied to the Church, 
as comprising the whole body of believers throughout 
the world, as early as the middle of the second century, 
and perhaps earlier ; and history shows us, how anxious 
the heads of the churches felt, in every country, that their 
members should hold communion with each other, and 
that that communion should not be extended to any who 
held sentiments at variance with those of the whole body. 
In order to this, it was usual for the bishops of dif- 
erent churches to exchange * letters of communion,' as 
they were termed, with each other, giving notice of 
any rising heresies, with the names of any who were 
suspected of giving encouragement to them. By this 
means, if a Christian went from any one part of the 
world to another, from Persia to Spain, or from Pontus 
to Carthage, he was certain to find his brethren hold- 
ing exactly the same opinions with himself, upon all 
points which they considered essential to salvation, and 
wherever he travelled, he was sure of being admitted 
to communion ; but, on the other hand, if the Chris- 
tians of his own country had put him out of communion 
for any errors of belief or conduct, he found himself 
exposed to the same exclusion wherever he went. The 
first dispute of any moment was that concerning the 
Paschal festival ; but churches which differed upon this 
point continued to hold communion with each other ; 
and the bishop of Home was thought decidedly wrong 
when he made this difference a cause of refusing com- 
munion. So strong a measure was only considered 
necessary, when the difference involved an essential 
point of doctrine.''* 



• Burton's History of First Three Centuries, p. 352. And sec above, 
p. 2, meaning of Catholic. 



THE ROMAN NOT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 21 

On open questions, like that just referred to concern- 
ing tke Paschal season, the arbitration of the Church of 
Borne, as an old and distinguished metropolitan church, 
was sometimes sought, sometimes gratuitously offered. 
But her sentence was accepted or rejected with equal 
freedom, by other churches, for then there was no law 
to make that Catholic, which was only 'Roman. A 
notorious instance of such freedom and independence 
of the churches, may be pointed to, in the case of a 
controversy concerning the rebaptising of heretics ; and 
another about the treatment of Christians who had 
fallen away in times of persecution. Both these ques 
tions having been referred to Stephen, bishop of Home, 
and Cyprian,* bishop of Carthage, separately (a.d. 256) 
and these bishops having come to a different conclu 
sion, a warm and somewhat angry contest ensued 
Stephen threatened to excommunicate Cyprian; Cyprian 
remained firm to his opinion, supporting himself by the 
voice of several councils, which he caused to be con- 
vened in Africa, and refusing any other precedence to 
Stephen (whom he called his colleague) than what he 
considered due to him, in courtesy and good policy, as 
the bishop of so illustrious a city. And such, indeed, 
was at that time the usual amount of deference shown 
to the EomaD see. The reader who is further curious, 
may consult Dr. Burton's twenty-sixth lecture, or the 
fifteenth chapter of his History of the Christian Church 
during the first three centuries. 



* Cyprian, h. 200 — famous as a writer as well as bishop, and 
whose authority, as opposing the pretences of the Roman bishop, 
comes with the more weight, as he wrote, on the Unity of the Church, 
a work of much celebrity. At the same time a certain primacy, 
so far as regards precedence of rank at a general council, or the 
respect due to his fraternal advice, might well have been allowed 
to the Roman bishop at that time, and probably was by Cyprian 
and others. .Compare the remarks, Part iii. ch. 1, and see Mosheim, 
Cent. iii. p. 2. ch. ii. § 2. 



22 



Chapter IV. 

History of the Ten Persecutions — Under Nero I. — Domitian II. — 
Trajan III. — Adrian IV. — M. Aurelius Antoninus V. — Septimus 
Severus VI. — Maximin VII. — Decius VIII. — Valerian IX. — 
Diocletian X. — Causes of persecutions — Their good effect — St. 
Alban — Miracles — Soldiers, and anecdote of. 

But heresies were not the only evils against which the 
early Christians were forced to struggle. They were 
in frequent danger of their lives from the most fierce 
and bloody persecutions. The Jews had been their 
first enemies ; but it was not long before the malice of 
the heathen also was stirred up against them. Ten 
principal persecutions from this quarter may be num- 
bered, from the reign of £Tero to that of Diocletian. 

The first under Nero (a.d. 65.) In this, both St. 
Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom at Honie ; but 
it is doubtful whether the persecution extended beyond 
the precincts of the capital ; and whether the emperor 
was not instigated to the act by a wish to divert the 
public attention from his own excesses. 

The second, under Domitian, a.d. 90. Among others 
who suffered, we find the names of Flavius Clemens, 
the consul, a near relative of the emperor and his wife 
Domitilla. How would that Apostle who was once 
prisoner in Home — who for two years 'preached the 
Gospel there in his own hired house,'* and who eventu- 
ally shed his blood in the holy cause — how would he 
have rejoiced to witness this progress 'in Ca?sar's 
household,' contrasted with the few, perhaps obscure, 
converts that were to be found there in his own day.f 

It was now that St. John was banished to Patmos. 
A large number of Christians shared the same fate ; 



* Acts xxviii. 30. f Sec rhil. iv. 22. 



LETTER OF PLINY. — IMPERIAL RESCRIPT. 23 

but they were shortly after recalled by Nerva* a just 
and humane emperor, who issued a proclamation for- 
bidding the Christians to be persecuted solely upon 
account of their religion. 

The third, under Trajan (a.d. 100.) JNoted as this 
emperor was for his justice and humanity in all other 
cases, he too much suffered himself to be swayed by 
the cruel advice of his counsellors, particularly of 
the younger Pliny, who, as governor of Pontus and 
Bythynia, took every pains to check the progress of 
what was derisively called the ' new superstition.' A 
famous letter was on this occasion written by Pliny, 
which deserves particular notice, partly as it shows 
incidentally the rapid spread of Christianity, and the 
irreproachable conduct of the Christians in the Soman 
provinces ; and partly, as it elicited an imperial rescript, 
which became the foundation of future laws on the 
subject. He wrote to the emperors : ' That there 
were many Christians of every age and of both sexes ; 
nor had the contagion of the superstition seized cities 
only, but smaller towns also, and the open country.' 
Prom what follows, it appears that as yet there was no 
public law or edict, nor any determined course of treat- 
ment of the Christians. For he says, ' That accusations, 
trials, and examinations were going on, and informa- 
tions continually proceeding;' and he applies for 
instructions how he is to proceed in the matter. This 
remarkable testimony follows : — f Upon the strictest 
inquiry,' he says, ' he had found that they were wont 
to meet together on a stated day before it was light, 
and sang among themselves alternately a hymn to 
Christ as a God ; and to bind themselves by an oath, 
not to the commission of any wickedness, but that they 
would not be guilty of theft, robbery, or adultery ; 
that they would never falsify their word, or withhold a 

* A.D. 96. 



24 MARTYRDOM OF SIMEON AND IGNATIUS. 

pledge committed to them.' The answer of Trajan 
was to the effect, ' That the Christians were not to be 
officiously sought after, but such as were accused and 
convicted of an adherence to Christianity were to be put 
to death as wicked citizens, unless they returned to the 
religion of their ancestors.' It was not likely that a 
command so ambiguously worded should operate other- 
wise than to the great disadvantage of the faithful fol- 
lowers of Christ. Accordingly, they were in great 
numbers hurried before the Roman tribunals, and 
being convicted of Christianity as a crime, laid down 
their lives for its sake. Under shelter of this edict 
the Jews brought to trial the venerable and aged 
Simeon, second bishop of Jerusalem, who suffered 
death by crucifixion. By express command of the 
emperor himself, Ignatius, another venerable bishop of 
Antioch, was brought prisoner to Eome, and there 
thrown to wild beasts, a.d. 106. Such were some of 
the leading features of the third persecution. 

The fourth broke out in the ninth year of Adrian, 
a.d. 126. About this time Aquila, governor of CElia 
Capitolina, and a relative of the emperor, was con- 
verted to Christianity. Two famous 'Apologies,'* i.e., 
treatises in defence of Christianity, were written by 
Quadratics and Aristides, and presented to the emperor 
in Greece. It was his intention to mitigate the severity 
of the law by threatening ' false accusers with punish- 
ment.' The Christians were 'only to suffer if they 
did anything contrary to the law.' But another am- 
biguous expression, however intended in their favour, 
proved ineffectual to shelter them from the persecution 
of their enemies, which continued till the reign of 



* These, With the pieces of Tatian and Athenctgoras, above named, 
(p. 16,) and the ' Apologies' of Justin Martyr and Tertullian, are 
the earliest writings extant in defence of Christianity. 



OF JUSTIN MARTYR AND POLYCARP, ETC. 25 

Antoninus Pius, a.d. 138. This good emperor, to 
remove the ambiguity of former edicts, made it punish- 
able only ' to do acts in opposition to the Homan 
government ;' and he enacted further, ' that if any one 
molested the Christians merely on account of their 
religion, he should be held a false accuser and punished 
according to law.' 

It may appear remarkable that this clemency was not 
imitated by his successor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 
who otherwise had many excellent qualities. But that 
prince, with all his clemency and remarkable'feelings of 
devotion to his own religion, was unhappily blind to 
the superior nature of the religion which he determined 
to persecute. Accordingly, in the second year of his 
reign (a.d. 162,) 

The fifth persecution commenced, and with aggra- 
vated features of cruelty. Hitherto, according to the 
edict of Trajan, no officious inquisition had been en- 
couraged ; but now the Christians were not only every- 
where sought for, but even tortures were put in requi- 
sition to force them to recant their faith. Justin 
Martyr and JPolycarp ; the latter the personal friend 
and disciple of St. John, suffered martyrdom in this 
persecution (a.d. 167.) The churches of Lyons and 
Vienne, in Gaul, were almost wholly destroyed. 

The sixth, under Septimius Severus (a.d. 203.) Ire* 
nceus, bishop of Lyons, and Victor, bishop of Home, were 
among the most celebrated martyrs. Also, Vivia Perpe- 
tua, Pelicitas, and many others in Carthage, Alexandria, 
and Antioch. But the persecutions in this were par- 
tial, and dependent chiefly on the disposition of the 
people and of the magistrates and governors in different 
parts. The Christian cause was gaining ground every 
day ; and had it not been for the necessity of satisfy- 
ing the people, it is probable this emperor would have 

D 



26 DECIAN PERSECUTION. 

treated it with much more favour. The two* next 
reigning were also favourable ; in the reign following 
these, Julia Mammgea, the mother of the emperor, f 
became herself a Christian. She was the personal 
friend of Origen, and delighted in the society of other 
Christian teachers and bishops. This, however, toge- 
ther with' a strong personal aversion, tended to provoke 
the jealousy of the next emperor, Maximin, who pro- 
cured the assassination of Severus, and interrupted the 
peace which had now been enjoyed in the churches for 
nearly twenty-five years. Thus began 

The seventh, under Maximin (a.d. 236.) By his 
order all bishops were to be put to death ; and severe 
persecution ensued. Origen, from his prison, wrote a 
book on martyrdom. But, as if in compensation for 
these misfortunes, Philip, the next emperor, was greatly 
friendly to the Christian cause, and it is made a ques- 
tion whether he was not himself a convert to the faith. 

The eighth, under Decius ; fiercer than all before. 
(a.d. 250.) This emperor aimed at the total extermina- 
tion of the Christians ; and there was no part of the 
empire where the greatest horrors were not perpe- 
trated against them. Many now fled into the deserts, 
where they remained in solitude all their lives. But 
the reign of this emperor was happily short, and there 
was peace till 

i The ninth, under Valerian (a.d. 258.) Xystus, bishop 
of Borne, Laurentius, and four other deacons of the 
same city, fled for safety to the catacombs, and were 
there taken and killed. It is said that the misfortunes 
which now befel every part of the empire, such as 
famines, floods, pestilences, and other calamities, so 
wrought upon his son and successor, Gallienus, that, 
hoping to appease the Deity, he departed from all the 



* Caracalla and Heliogabalus. t Alexander Severus. 



DIOCLETIAN. 27 

maxims of his predecessors under the like circumstances, 
and relaxed the persecutions against the Christians, 
issuing edicts in their favour. This, again, brought 
peace to the churches. 

The tenth and last persecution broke out under 
Diocletian (a.d. 303.) He began by ordering all Chris- 
tian churches to be pulled down ; secondly, and, soon 
after, the bishops and all the clergy to be seized ; 
thirdly, that they should be compelled to sacrifice to 
heathen gods or suffer death ; lastly, that all Christians 
should be compelled to do the same. These successive 
edicts were so rigorously executed, that in the space of 
one month only, 17,000 Christians are said to have 
been put to death. 

The cause of these cruelties is naturally to be found 
in the passions of men, particularly of those whose 
worldly interests seemed likely to suffer by the change 
of religions, They were, doubtless, aggravated by the 
personal animosity and prejudice of some of the em- 
perors. In the earlier reigns, there is no doubt the 
enmity to Christianity arose from political motives, — 
from a mistaken fear that it was the object of the 
Christians, as it had been of the Jews, to subvert the 
empire of the Horaans, and to set up a new and inde- 
pendent kingdom. The charge of ' opposing Csesar' 
had been brought against Christ himself. The fear 
which urged Domitian to his harsh measures was of 
the same political description. He ordered search to 
be made for any relatives of Jesus who might be still 
living in Palestine, and be likely to attempt the king- 
dom ; but finding only two, and those poor, illiterate, 
and inoffensive men, he speedily dismissed them, full 
of wonder at his strange suspicions. The precautionary 
measures of Trajan, though perverted by Pliny and 
other provincial governors, to the express injury of the 
same unoffending class, were directed in the first in- 



28 SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 

stance against all secret associations ; showing that he 
was apprehensive, rather on the score of a rebellion, 
than on that of religion. 

Of succeeding emperors, some, as we hare seen, 
were even favourable to Christianity ; many were tole- 
rant of it. But the popular clamour too frequently 
overpowered their efforts, and every kind of false accu- 
sations, with every outrage and indignity, were too 
often the lot of the Christians. Notwithstanding this, 
their numbers increased daily. Their behaviour under 
suffering, their noble endurance of injuries, won the 
admiration of their enemies ; and thus what was meant 
for the destruction of Christianity tended only to ad- 
vance it. In another way, also, the same good effect 
was produced. For it was with all these, as with the 
first persecution mentioned in the Acts, * they that 
were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the 
word 5 (Acts viii. 4.) In the Decian persecution this 
was remarkably the case. For at this time we may 
trace the extension of the faith as far as to Paris and 
Tours in Gaul ; Metz, Cologne, and Treves in Germany. 
We read of the Goths in Thrace, and a tribe of the 
Arabs, being converted to the faith. Paul, in his flight 
from Alexandria, became the first Christian hermit in 
the desert of Thebais. Britain itself is not to be omitted 
among the countries which at this time supplied her 
martyrs, and sent her representative bishops to the 
most famous councils of the Church. Alb anus, a British 
soldier, gave himself up to death, refusing to betray 
some Christian refugees who had committed themselves 
to his care. British bishops were present at the council 
of Aries (a.d. 314.) 

The following from a late interesting writer and his- 
torian of the English Church, is the touching account 
of St. Alban's martyrdom : — ' During the tenth and 
most rigorous of the persecutions, which was the only 



ST. ALB AN, THE FIRST BRITISH MARTYR. 29 

one that extended to this island, a Christian priest 
flying from his persecutors, came to the city of V eru- 
laniium, and took shelter in Alban's house ; he, not 
being of the faith himself, concealed him for pure com- 
passion; but when he observed the devotion of his 
guest, how fervent it was and how firm, and the conso- 
lations and the joy which he appeared to find in prayer, 
his heart was touched ; and he listened to his teaching, 
and became a believer. Meantime the persecutors 
traced the object of their pursuit to this city, and disco- 
vered his retreat. But when they came to search the 
house, Alban, putting on the hair cassock of his teacher, 
delivered himself into their hands as if he had been the 
fugitive, and was carried before the heathen governor ; 
while the man whom they sought had leisure and oppor- 
tunity to escape. Because he refused either to betray 
his guest, or offer sacrifice to the Eoman gods, he was 
scourged, and then led to execution upon the spot 
where the abbey stands, which in after times was 
erected to his memory, and still bears his name. That 
spot was then a beautiful meadow on a little rising 
ground, ' Seeming,' says the venerable Bede, ' a fit 
theatre for the martyr's triumph.' ' # 

The miracles which occupy so large a space in the 
martyrologies should be received with caution, but are 
by no means to be entirely rejected as fabulous. We 
know that at the first preaching of the Gospel, it 
pleased God to ' confirm the word with signs follow- 
ing j'f and doubtless there may have been wise reasons 
for occasional manifestations of his power and presence 
with his Church in the next ages. For equally wise 
reasons afterwards, when Christianity was able to stand 
alone, and the peculiar evidences of it were better un- 



From Southey's History of the Oiurch of England, chap. ii. 
t Mark xvi. 20. 

D2 



80 ANECDOTE OF A SOLDIER. 

derstood, the miraculous signs appear to have been 
gradually withdrawn. In both cases we should adore 
the goodness of God, who has always so graciously 
adapted the means employed to the wants and neces- 
sities of his creatures. 

The mention of St. Alban may lead us to remark 
that the active duties of life by no means unfit us for 
the profession and practice of Christianity. It was a 
soldier and centurion that became the first Gentile 
convert ; and history informs us, that it was from the 
military ranks that the largest accessions were made to 
the Church in the first three centuries. 

It is related of Marius, a soldier ofCaesarea Stratonitis, 
that when he was going to receive the place of centu- 
rion, just as the staff was about to be entrusted to him, 
a comrade who had the next promise of this promotion, 
stepped forward and declared that, according to the 
laws, Marius could not hold any military rank, because 
he was a Christian. On this they granted Marius a 
delay of three hours to know his decision. In the 
meantime the bishop, Theotechnus, led him to the 
church, pointed on the one hand to the sword which 
the soldier bore at his side, on the other, to the book of 
the Gospel, which he laid before him : ' He must 
choose between the two — between the military rank 
and the Gospel.' Marius, without hesitation, lifted up 
his right hand and laid hold of the GospeL fc ' jN"ow,' 
said the bishop, ' hold fast to God, and mayst thou 
obtain what thou hast chosen. Depart in peace.' After 
a most courageous confession, he was beheaded.* 



* From Kose'a Neander, vol. i. p. 142. 



31 



Chapter V. 

Issue of the struggle — Accession and conversion of Constantine— 
Maxentius — Proclamation of Constantine — Miraculous cross — 
Death of Galerius — Death of Maximin — Defeat of Licinius — 
Establishment of Christianity — Pretended 'donation of Con- 
stantine' — Seat of government removed to Constantinople — 
Helena — Diocesan and provincial synods — Division of ecclesi- 
astical administration by Constantine. 

Long and dreary as was the course of these persecutions, 
they yet gave occasion for the display of the Divine 
grace in the lives and in the deaths of many heroic suf- 
ferers and followers of Christ. In the chain of events,, 
by which all their labours and sufferings were made at 
length to terminate in that glorious consummation, the 
conversion of their very persecutors to the faith which 
once they destroyed, the hand of God was no less con- 
spicuously seen. 

Const antius and Galerius had succeeded, on the 
resignation of Diocletian,* to be joint emperors of 
Home, when Constantius died at York. Constantine, 
his son, was now proclaimed emperor by the army, 
devotedly attached to him for his many virtues. But 
he did not assume the imperial purple, till, after various 
successes, an engagement with his rival Maxentius, 
under the walls of Rome, left him conqueror of the 
field. It was in the year a.d. 313, just ten years after 
the Diocletian persecution broke out, that he entered 
Borne in triumph, proclaiming toleration to the Chris- 
tians, and himself professing that religion. The story 
of the miraculous cross, with the motto, ' Hoc signo 
vinces,'t which he had seen suspended in the air on the 



* Constantius and Galerius, with Maximin, had been the chOsert 
associates of this emperor in the cares of the imperial government* 
Of these, Maximin resigned as well as Diocletian, leaving the purple 
in the hands of the two above named. 

t i.e. ' Under the banner of the cross thou Shalt conquer.' 



32 THE HAND OF GOD CLEARLY SEEN 

eve of the great battle with. Maxentius, has very gene- 
rally obtained credit. It is at any rate certain, that 
from this time, the Labarum, or special standard of the 
Roman emperors, was adorned with the monogram of 
the name of Christ, to perpetuate the memory of a 
victory which was attributed to his peculiar favour 
and blessing. Galerius, before his death, was sorely 
troubled in conscience for his past treatment of the 
Christians; and issued a decree by which they were 
allowed to have buildings for the exercise of their 
worship, Many heathen temples were now converted 
into Christian churches, and Constantine himself ordered 
other new ones to be erected of great magnificence. 
Persecutions, encouraged by the rival emperors,^ Lici- 
nius and Maximin, still continued, for a time, in the 
eastern parts of the empire. Maximin, however, like 
Galerius before him, was in a remarkable manner so 
subdued by the reverses and misfortunes which fell 
upon him, that he died imploring the forgiveness of the 
Christians, and their prayers for him. Licinius was left 
the only sharer in the imperial command who persisted 
in his enmity to the Christians. His fate was, however, 
decided in the glorious issue of another battle gained by 
Constantine, and which left him undisputed master of 
the Eoman empire, a.d. 323. 

Such was the glorious issue of three centuries of per- 
secution and conflict. Next, after the destruction of 
Jerusalem, it may, indeed, be considered an incontest- 
able mark of the Divine interposition in favour of 
Christianity, when we behold the subjugation of the 
mightiest empire in the world to the yoke of Christ, 



* There is difficulty in presenting, in short, a correct idea as to 
who was rightful emperor at this crisis. It is known to readers of 
history, that there were now six competitors for the name. The 
imperial edicts ran in the joint names of Licinius and Constantine. 



IN THE CONVERSION OF THE EMPIRE. 33 

his cross mounted on the throne of the Caesars, and 
his name waving on the imperial standards. 

Learning, too, had become enlisted on the side of 
Christianity. By the translation of the books of Holy 
Scriptures, by able revisions and commentaries, as well 
as by books and treatises in defence of its doctrines, 
powerful aid was lent to the propagation of the Gospel. 
The works of Justin Martyr* 'and Tertulllan.oi Eusebius 
and Lactantius, of St. Augustine and St. Chrysostoniy 
the pupils of that and the next age, will bear comparison 
with the most learned specimens of ancient or modern 
literature. And it was not so much by miracles, as by 
the lives and persuasive eloquence of its professors, by 
the bright light of the church, as of a city set upon a 
hill, by the power of the religion to regulate the heart, 
to soothe the conscience, and to elevate the under- 
standing, that Christianity was henceforth to go on and 
prosper in the world. 

The 'Donation of Constantine/ by which it was 
pretended that that emperor, on transferring the seat 



* Justin Martyr, by birth a Samaritan, was highly accomplished 
In the Greek philosophy; but seeing the fortitude of the Christian 
martyrs, he was converted to the faith, a.d. 133, and was after- 
wards famous both as a Christian writer and martyr. He follows 
next with Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen, after the writers of the 
apostolic age. 

Tertullian, born at Carthage, 147, and became a presbyter 
about 192, and also an eminent Christian writer, whom Cyprian 
(see eh. hi.) called ' his master.' Though he wrote against heresies, 
he himself became a Montanist, into which he is said to have been 
betrayed by the hastiness and impatience of his humour, and pro- 
voked by some ill usage from the Koman clergy. He, however, 
retracted this error, but still lived apart from his brethren, and held 
opinions of his own. The most valuable of his writings are the 
Prescription against Heretics, and the Apology for Christians. See 
Bishop Kaye's Tertullian, and the Translation, with a valuable pre- 
face, in the Library of the Catholic Fathers, vol. x. 

Eusebius, born 270. Not the Eusebius of Nicomedia, and after- 
wards Constantinople, who is suspected of Arian opinions, and who 
baptized Con stan tine, but Eusebius, called Pamphili (from his friend, 
an eminent Christian writer and martyr of that name). He was 



34 SEAT OF EMPIRE REMOVED. 

of government to Constantinople, had consigned the 
Western Empire, with a certain territory round Rome, 
to the bishop of that city, has been acknowledged an 
invention of the eighth century. That large possessions 
in land accrued to the Church of Rome, in common 
with many other churches, at a very early period, there 
can be no doubt. Such possessions the piety of indi- 
viduals had already accorded to them before the con- 
version of Constantine.^ But the fact of the Roman 
bishops availing themselves of a spurious document 
to establish a dominion not founded on any primitive 
right, shows how conscious they were secretly of the 
weakness of their pretensions. However, the removal 
of the seat of empire to Constantinople, and the subse- 
quent division of the empire itself into east and west 
between the two sons of Theodosius,f are remarkable 
events, and important (as we shall have occasion here- 
after to notice,) in their bearing on the history of the 
church. 

That Constantine took an active interest in the 
minutest affairs of the church, is, indeed, abundantly 



bishop of Csesarea, and at the council of Nice he sat on the right of 
the emperor, and delivered the opening address. He declined the 
chair of Constantinople, and died 340. His principal works are 
the Life of Constantine, Prceparatio Emngelica, Demonstratio Evan- 
gelica, and Ecclesiastical History, 

Lactantius, a master of rhetoric, and tutor to Crispns, the empe- 
ror's son, called, for the elegance of his style, the Cicero of ecclesi- 
astical Latinity. 

St. Augustine, born 354, in Tegaste, a town of Egypt, of a 
pious mother, though heathen father. His mother's name was 
Monica. His grief at her death was one of the most striking inci- 
dents in his life. He redeemed a youth of levity and vice, by the 
most assiduous labour in the ministry of the Christian church, in 
which he was bishop of Hippo, 305. He died, 430. 

Oirysostom, a famous Greek father, and bishop of Constanti- 
nople, 30S. From his eloquence called Chrysostom, or the 'golden- 
mouthed.' He was twice banished by the jealousy of the empress, 
and died, 407, leaving many celebrated commentaries. 

* See Dr. Burton's History of the Church, p. 34 S. 

t Arcadius and Honorius. The east was allotted to Arcadius, the 
west to Honorius, A.D. 305. 



PROVINCIAL SYNODS. 35 

evident. Helena, the mother of the emperor, surpassed 
him in the private virtues which adorned her character 
as a Christian. She was liberal to the poor, simple, 
modest, and exemplary in her own habits, and remark- 
able for the zeal which she showed in honouring the 
places of our blessed Saviour's birth and passion, by 
the erection of suitable churches at Bethlehem and on 
the Mount of Olives. 

It was the wish of the emperor that Synods of the 
church should be held in every province, which com- 
prehended several inferior dioceses,^ twice in the year. 
Another remarkable regulation of Cons tan tine was his 
division of ecclesiastical administration into two parts, 
the internal and external, thus described by the accurate 
pen of Mosheim: " The internal he left to the bishops 
and to councils. It embraced all the essentials of reli- 
gion, religious controversies, forms of worship, func- 
tions of the priests, their vices, &c. The external ad- 
ministration he took upon himself. It included what- 
ever relates to the external condition of the church, or 
its discipline, and also all contests and causes of the 
ministers of the church, property, worldly honours and 
privileges, offences against the laws, and the like. He, 
therefore, and his successors, assembled councils, pre- 
sided in them, assigned judges for religious disputes, 
decided contests between bishops and their people, 
determined the limits of ecclesiastical provinces, and by 
the ordinary judges, heard and decided upon the civil 
causes and common offences among the ministers of the 
church ; ecclesiastical causes, on the other hand, he left 
to the cognizance of councils and bishops. Yet,' he 
adds, ' this famous partition of the ecclesiastical admi- 
nistration was never clearly explained, and accurately 



* This was also enacted by canon five of the council of Nice : * the 
first synod to be held in the autumn, the second a little before Easter.' 



36 DISPUTES 0N T EASTER-DAY. 

defined. Hence, in subsequent times, we see many 
transactions which do not accord with it, but contra- 
vene it. For the emperors not unfrequently deter- 
mined matters of the interior kind : and councils and 
bishops often enacted laws respecting things which 
seem to belong to the external form and affairs of the 
church.* 



Chaptee VI. 

Apostles' creed — Easter-day — Excommunication, the greater and less 
— Penance — Treatment of lapsed—Baptism — Justin Martyr's 
description of — Baptism of heretics — Doctrine of Millennium — 
Purgatory — Saints' days, prayers to saints — Acts of the Martyr 
— Order of divine service— Catechumeni — Fideles — Competentes 
— Energumeni — Penitentes — Missa Catechumenorum — Missa 
Fideliuin — Sacraments called mysteries — Religious ceremonial. 

Fob an exposition of the faith of those times, we hare 
already noticed the * Creed' called 'the Apostles'/ 
and shall have occasion, in the next chapter, more fully 
to notice the additions (always in subordination to 
Scripture,) that were made to that creed by the council 
of Nice, and some councils following. 

A difference had early arisen between the Roman 
and Asiatic churches about master-day. The Asiatics, 
after the manner of the Jews, held the Paschal Feast 
on the 14th of the month, commemorating Christ's 
death on that day, and three days after, his resurrec- 
tion, or Easier-day. For this custom they pleaded the 
authority of St. John. The Latins kept Easter-day 
always on a Sunday, which they made the first Sunday 
after the full moon, and Good-Friday three days before. 
The contention proceeded so far as to engage in con- 
troversy no less eminent persons than Tolycarp and 
Anicetus, bishop of Home, and afterwards Victor of 



* Moslieim, Cent. iv. p. 2. cli. ii. 



PENANCE. — TREATMENT OF LAPSED. 37 

Borne, and JPoly crates, bishop of Ephesus. Irenseus 
was called in to mediate, but the disputed point was 
not finally settled till the council of Nice, when both 
parties conformed to the Latin usage. 

In other matters of discipline, but few alterations 
had hitherto been admitted from the primitive usage 
of the apostolic times noticed in a former chapter. 
Excommunications, however, came to be distinguished 
into the greater and the less ; by the less, offenders 
were debarred the privilege of participation in the 
Holy Communion, but not from the other parts of the 
service ; by the greater, iliej were cut off from all 
church ordinances whatsoever.^ It was not' for all 
sins, of course, that penance was prescribed, but 
only for the more flagrant crimes, such as murder, 
adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, idolatry, sacrilege. f 
]Nor did they neglect to point out the nature of true 
Christian repentance, as distinct from the mere per- 
formance of the prescribed acts of penance. On the 
contrary, they laid great stress on the difference between 
the absolution of the priests and the Divine forgiveness 
of sins ; and that God alone can tell the state of the 
heart, without which the outward act is nothing. * If 
any man has deceived us,' says Cyprian, * then let 
God, who is not mocked, and can look upon the heart 
of man, decide on that in which we are unable to judge, 
and correct the sentence of his servants. 'J 

The treatment of the lapsed,^ — i. e., of those persons 
who had fallen from the faith in times of persecution — - 



* Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, book xvi. ch. 2. 

t See again Bingham, xvi. 3. 

% See Eosc's Neander, vol. i. p. 233. Cyprian, Ep. ad Anto- 
nian, lv. 

§ To such as had not the fortitude to maintain their faith was 

given the opprobrious name of ' sacrificati' and ' thurificati' — i.e., 

persons who had offered sacrifice and incense to false gods ; when 

this test had been proposed to them, as was usually done by their 

E 



38 BAPTISM. 

gave rise to much, dispute in the Church. Some refused 
to extend any indulgence to them at all — and such was 
the view of the Novatians in particular ; others were 
for denying them the rites of the Church except in 
extremis, or when in imminent danger of their lives, 
in sickness, &c. — this was Cyprian s view. The Nova- 
tians were generally condemned in this matter by the 
orthodox churches ; though all were very strict in the 
terms of re-admission. 

Baptism was commonly administered by immersion. 
That infants were baptized, is placed beyond a doubt 
by the testimonies of Origen, Augustine, and others. # 
The usual manner with adults is thus described by 
Justin Martyr, a.d. 155 : ' Whosoever are persuaded 
that those things are true which are taught and incul- 
cated by us, and engage to live according to them, are 
taught to pray to God fasting for the remission of their 
former sins, while we pray and fast with them. Then 
they are led by us to some place where water is, and 
are regenerated even as we ourselves were regenerated ; 
for they are then immersed in the water in the name 
of the Father of all, the Lord God, and of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost.'f It was at first 
the custom to dip three times. In some churches they 
anointed with oil, or gave butter and honey to eat. 

It was a point universally agreed upon in the Catholic 
church, that no lapse or crime could make it necessary 
to give baptism a second time to any who had once been 
truly baptized within the pale of the church.J The 



heathen persecutors, some got off by bribing the public officers 
to give them certificates (libellos) of their having sacrificed, though 
they had not done so. These were called ' libellatici,' and were 
usually more leniently treated in the church. 

* See Kennaway's Manual of Bajrtism, pp. 170 — 175, &c, and 
Wall's Infant Baptism. 

t Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 61. J See Bingham, b. xii. ch. v. 



MILLENNIAL THEORY. 39 

baptism of heretics, or of schismatics, was accounted 
for nothing by Cyprian, and many of his brethren in 
Africa and the East; but Stephen, bishop of Home, 
and many of the Western churches, admitted its effi- 
cacy. The point was long undecided ; but the council 
of Aries (a.d. 314) drew a distinction between heretics 
who administered baptism in the name of the Trinity, 
and those who did not ; admitting its validity in the 
former case, rejecting it in the latter ; and this distinc- 
tion was afterwards usually followed. 

From what follows, it will be seen that purgatory 
was as much unknown as prayers to the departed. 
The citation is from the late Dr. Burton. ' It was 
believed by a large portion of Christians, that the 
resurrection of the righteous would take place before 
the final resurrection of all mankind at the day of 
judgment. This was the doctrine of the millennium, 
which was entertained by several Christian writers of 
the second century. When they spoke of the first 
resurrection, they meant that the righteous would rise 
and reign with Christ upon the earth for a thousand 
years, at the end of which period the general resurrec- 
tion would take place. It was natural for them to add 
to this belief, that the souls of the righteous, while 
they were in their separate abode, were anxiously 
looking forward to the time of the first resurrection, 
when they would be released from their confinement ; 
and their surviving friends did not think it improper 
to make it a subject of their own prayers to God, that 
he would be pleased to hasten the period when those 
who had departed in His faith and fear might enter 
into their heavenly kingdom. This was the only sense 
in which prayers were offered for the dead by the 
early Christians. They did not think that their prayers 
could affect the present or future condition of those 
who were departed. They believed them to be in a 



40 THEORY OF ORIGEN. 

state of happiness immediately after death, and to be 
certain of enjoying still greater happiness hereafter. 
It was only the period of their entering upon this final 
state which was supposed to be affected by the prayers 
of the living, and it afforded a melancholy satisfaction 
to the latter to meet at the graves of their friends, or 
on the anniversary of their death, and to remember 
them in their prayers to God. 

6 The notion had not as yet been entertained that 
their prayers were heard by the departed, or that these 
could in turn address themselves to God, and benefit 
the living by their prayers. The first person who 
seems to have introduced any new speculation on this 
subject was Origen;'^ and it is difficult to form any 
correct notion of the opinions which he intended to 
support. Perhaps he had not come to any definite 
conclusion ; and it is to be regretted that he entered 
at all upon a question which the Scriptures have left 
in obscurity. His mind, however, was peculiarly in- 
quisitive upon these matters. He seems to have 
imagined that the soul of every person had contracted 
a certain stain of guilt, which was necessary to be 
effaced before it could be fit for the happiness of 
heaven. This cleansing was to be performed by fire ; 
and every soul, even of the best of men, was to pass 
through this fiery purification. This, however, was not 
to take place immediately after death, but at the time 
of the resurrection ; so that Origen's notion was totally 
different from that which was introduced in later times 
concerning a purgatorial fire, though it may in some 
measure have led the way to it : but it is probable that 
the generality of Christians had as yet heard nothing 
of the soul having to pass through fire after its separa- 
tion from the body.'f 



* a.d. 202. f Burton's UUtory^ p. 280. 



OBDER OF DIVINE SERVICE. 41 

Respecting the observance of saints' days, which is 
the last cnstom which we shall name, the same excellent 
author observes : ' There can be no doubt that, in 
those times of trial, the zeal of the Christians was 
animated by a recollection of those who had continued 
faithful unto death; and when personal danger had 
subsided, it might still be found useful to hold up the 
example of suffering to those who were exposed to the 
still more fatal temptations of security and ease. . . . The 
acts of the martyr, that is, the circumstances pre- 
ceding and attending his death, were generally com- 
mitted to writing, and it was usual to read them on the 
anniversary of his martyrdom, either at the spot where 
his remains were deposited, or at some other religious 
meeting.'^ 

The order of divine service was at once simple and 
solemn. A sermon sometimes came at the beginning 
of the service, which then proceeded with psalms, lessons, 
and prayers. An office for the catechumens (or persons 
under instruction) followed ; another for the more ad- 
vanced of these, called the competentes. After this the 
deacon dismissed the congregation with the words 
' Ite missa est,' and hence the whole service up to 
this point was called the Missa catechitmenorum. 
Then came the Missa fideliumtf or eucharistic oblation 
and accompanying service. Sometimes a special office 
was added for the energumeni, or persons distressed or 
tormented in mind ; and sometimes also separate 
prayers for the penitentes, or class of persons under- 
going penance for any notorious crimes. 

It was usual to hide the higher offices from the 
sight of those who were not yet competent to attend 



* Burton, p. 293. 
t Or 'service of the faithful ';' for the people were then distin- 
guished into two classes — (1.) The faithful, or believers; (2.) Cate- 
chumens, or persons under instruction preparatory to baptism. 

e2 



42 



THE MYSTEET.ES. 



them ; -which got them the name of the mysteries. 
And thus under this name, there came to be included 
many other rites besides the two sacraments of baptism 
and the Supper of the Lord, such as confirmation, 
ordination, &c. ; but this by no means justifies us in 
exalting these others to the same rank of sacraments as 
the former. 

It is admitted, that from the time of Constantine, 
when peace and safety inclined men to the indulgence 
of more display, the rites of the church began to be 
administered with more of pomp and magnificence. 
That such additional attractions were lawful, it will 
scarcely be questioned; their expediency must depend 
on their being kept in due subordination to purity of 
doctrine and simplicity of faith. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ROHAN EMPERORS. 

A.D. 33 A.D. 312. 

Caracalla •**♦•- 211 

Macrinus 217 

Heliogabalus 21S 

Alexander Severus . . . 222 

Maximinus 235 

Gordianus 239 

Philippus 244 

Decius 249 

Gallus 252 

Valerianus 255 

Galienus 260 

Claudius 267 

Aurelianus 269 

Tacitus 275 

Probus 277 

Carus 2S2 

Diocletianus 2S5 

Constantius 304 

Constantinus 300 

As the bishops of Rome arc comparatively seldom mentioned in 
this part, their names and order of succession are reserved till the 
next part. 



Tiberius 


. 14 


Caligula ..*... 


. 37 


Claudius 


. 41 


Nero 


55 


Galba 


. 68 


Otho 


. 69 


Vitellius 


. 69 


Vespasian 


. 70 


Titus 


. 79 


Domitian ..... 


. 81 


Nerva 


. 96 


Trajan 


. 98 


Adrian 


.118 


Antoninus Pius . . . 


. 13S 


M. Aurelius Antoninus . 


. 161 


Commodus 


. 180 


Pertinax 


. 193 


Julianus 


. 193 


Septimius Severus . . 


. 193 



PART II. 

from: constantine to Charlemagne. 



A.D. 325 A.D. 800. 



Chaptes I. 

Breaking up of Roman empire — Gothic invasion — Political changes 
— Church affairs — Metropolitans — Patriarchates of Rome, An- 
tioch, Alexandria — Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem 
— Arius and Arian heresy — First (Ecumenical Council of Nice, 
a.d. 325 — Homo-ousius and Homce-ousios — Athanasius — Coun- 
cils of Rimini and Seleucia, a.d. 359 — End of Arians. 

nPHE period on which we are now entering comprises, 
in a civil sense, many important events. The ancient 
Eoman Empire, from causes inherent in its own consti- 
tution, and not in any way affected by Christianity, was 
fast hastening to its decay. Could it be otherwise with 
an empire of such vast magnitude, where the rich were 
given up to indolence, where commerce, arts, and agri- 
culture were looked upon as menial professions, and 
where the very defence of the country was left to 
foreign and mercenary troops? "New blood might, 
indeed, be infused, but when the heart of the system was 
thus rotten, the power was wanting to give it efficient 
or healthful circulation. It was better that the very 
framework of society should be dissolved and recon- 
structed, so that Christianity might enter and mix up 
her new and healing element with more prospect of 
success. And this it pleased God in the course of 
events to bring about. Hordes of Gothic nations rush- 
ing in committed havoc in every direction ; they broke 
like a thunderbolt on the aged trunk of the Eoman 
Empire, and split it into a thousand fragments. Yet 



44 METROPOLITANS.— PATRIARCHS. 

each fragment became a stock on which civilization was 
destined to burst forth anew. Christianity engrafted 
itself upon each. And this was all that conld be 
expected from it; — all that answered to the inspired 
descriptions of the seed which should grow up insen- 
sibly, and the leaven which should silently yet effec- 
tually leaven the whole lump. 

At the beginning of this period we behold the first 
Christian emperor in sole and undisputed possession 
of the throne of the Csesars ; at the end of it a bold 
but short-lived attempt, after an extinction of nearly 
four hundred years, to revive the Empire of the West, 
by transferring the title to the kings of the Francs, in 
the person of the emperor Charlemagne. The inter- 
vening events were of no less interest ; — the division of 
the empire into East and "West, the G-othic invasions, 
the formation of new dynasties in Italy, Lombardy, 
and the rest of Europe, the Exarchate, the Lombard 
wars, and, finally, the rise of the Mohammedan power, 
by which a great portion of the East was overrun, and 
from which the whole of Europe was with difficulty 
saved, by the prowess of Charles Martel and the 
Erench. 

We shall see, in the sequel, how it fared with Chris- 
tianity through all these changes. But to render the 
account more intelligible, we must explain the modifi- 
cations which had taken place in the outward form and 
constitution of the Church. For by this time there 
were not only bishops* in every large city, but also 
chief bishops, called Metropolitans, in every province. 
Again, among the latter, three were chief; viz., the 



* ' a.d. 301,' says Mr. Waddington, 'one thousand bishops 
administered the eastern, and eight hundred the western church.' 
A diocese was at first the name of certain civil districts, which com- 
prehended several provinces. It is now used for the single district 
of one bishop, then sometimes called parcscia, or parish. 



HERESY OF ARIUS. 45 

Metropolitans of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria, 
These, under Constantine, acquired a special pre-emi- 
nence, and, soon after, the name of Patriarchs. At the 
second general council,* Constantinople was added to 
these patriarchates, and at the council of Chalcedon 
(a.d. 451), Jerusalem was added also, to which latter, 
as the mother of all churches, a special honour had 
always been accorded- Thus, in the fifth century, 
there came to be Five Patriarchates : Each had equal 
jurisdiction over the provinces within its own depend- 
ence ; and in all cases (consulting only for the general 
peace and unity of the Church, by taking counsel of 
neighbouring patriarchates) each was absolute within 
itself. It is to be observed, however, that not all 
metropolitans, nor all bishops, were subject to the 
patriarchs. Many were allowed to retain their inde- 
pendence, such as Carthage, Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, 
Great Britain, Ireland, and for a time, Kavenna, Milan, 
Aquilea, Aries, &c. &c. The idea of these ecclesiastical 
districts in general was borrowed from the civil divi- 
sion of the Eoman Empire into the four prefectures of 
Gaul, Illyrium, Italy, and the East. 

We may now proceed. The first subject which 
attracted the attention of the whole Church, was a point 
of faith brought into dispute by Arius, a presbyter of 
Alexandria, who affirmed that the Word of God was a 
creature produced out of nothing, and of a substance 
different from the Father, and that he had a beginning. 
Of all errors, there could be none more alarming than 
one, which thus attacked a fundamental article of the 
faith. If errors on such a point were tolerated, might 
not Christians relapse into their former Polytheism? 
was there not danger lest they should confound the 
Divine author of the faith with the mere creatures of 

* A.D. 331. 



46 COUNCIL OF NICE. 

Imman imagination, with some Gnostic or heathen 
deity ? And if they were not sure of the nature of his 
Person, how could they know the value of His atone- 
ment ? how could they be assured of the fact of His 
resurrection? But the Church was aware of the 
danger, and took immediate measures to repress the 
heresy. We before alluded to a law of Constantine, # 
that in each province there should be held, twice at 
least in every year, a council of the Church. On this 
occasion the Church was everywhere in motion. But 
the emperor was of opinion that, in order to put an 
end to the great contests which arose, it was necessary 
to call a council of the whole Church from all the pro- 
vinces, both of the East and West. Such a council 
assembled at Nice, in Bithynia, a.d. 325, and has ever 
since been recognised as the Eikst Genekal or (Ecu- 
menical Council. Here the doctrines of Arius were 
condemned; and the Nicene Creed first put forth 
nearly in its present form. The great dispute turned 
on the word ' Consubstantial,' or of one substance^ with 
the Father : some objecting that this had been set aside 
by the council of AntiochJ as too much savouring of 
the Samosatean doctrine, which denied the distinction 
of Persons in the Trinity. It was, however, adopted 
with but two or three dissentients. The eastern bishops 
wished afterwards to get it changed for the words of 
like substance, § meaning, they said, the same as before, 
but better expressing the distinction of the persons. 

It must not be supposed that the labours of the 
council at once put an end to the controversy. Scarcely 
three years elapsed, before the emperor was induced, 
by the misrepresentations of certain Arian bishops, to 
recal the heretic, and demand his re-admission to office 

* See part i. cli. 5. t In Greek, 6[xoov<nos> * homo-ousios.' 

t a.d. 270. See pt. i. ch. iii. 

§ In Greek, 6/io<ou<r*or, ' homce-ousios.' 



CONDEMNATION OF ARIUS. 47 

in the church of Alexandria. It was by refusing to 
comply with this demand that the celebrated Atliana- 
sues, bishop of that see, first drew upon himself the 
displeasure of the emperor, who caused him to be 
deposed (in a council held at Tyre) and driven into 
banishment. At the death of Constantine, a.d. 337, 
Athanasius was recalled, but twice again suffered exile ; 
once he sought an asylum at Eome; and at length, 
after a life of many vicissitudes, and having survived 
the various assaults and calumnies of his enemies, he 
died in a good old age, (a.d. 373,) having been bishop 
forty-six years. Arius himself, rejected at Alexandria 
and seeking admission in the church at Constantinople, 
came suddenly to an untimely and miserable end (335.) 
Verbal differences on the question continued for a 
time to divide the bishops of the East and West ; and 
at last, the Emperor Constantius thought fit, in the 
same year, # to summon two separate councils, one of 
the eastern bishops at Seleiicia, another of the western 
at Rimini. Here the western bishops, tired out by 
long delays and disputings, came to an accommodation, 
and admitted the confession drawn up by the rival 
council. Soon after, the Arian party, already broken up 
into two great divisions,f began rapidly to decline. 
The demi-Arians consented to give up the parti- 
cular form adopted at Seleucia and Rimini, and, in 
common with their western brethren, to subscribe to 
the Nicene belief. This formidable heresy, after it had 
troubled the Church for fifty years, and still lingered 
for awhile in the East, under Yalens and other 
emperors more or less favourable to it, came almost to 



* A.D. 359. 
t Viz. — (1) the Anomea?is, who denied all likeness of substance in 
the divine person of the Son to the Father ; these were otherwise 
called Eunomians and Mtians, from tAvo leaders of that name ; and, 
(2,) the Demi-Arians, whose chief controversy was on words, espe- 
cially the word ■ Homo-ousios.' 



48 HERESY OF APOLLINARIS. 

an end under Theodosius, who prohibited any from 
being elected bishops, or from holding assemblies of 
the Church, who held any other but the orthodox 
faith :— the faith (as he termed it) ' of Damasus, bishop 
of Eome, and of Peter, bishop of Alexandria;' for 
these, at that time, represented the most orthodox 
communities of Christians. 

It is remarkable, throughout the controversy, that 
the Arian was never the popular side; as it is not 
by the understanding so much as in the heart that the 
doctrines of Christianity are to be received, the here- 
tical party met with little favour from the humbler 
classes of the people. In the simple and unsophisti- 
cated heart of man, there is doubtless an aptitude, 
under the influence of Divine grace, to receive the 
genuine doctrines of Christianity, however deep may 
be the mysteries which they involve. 



Chaptee II. 

Apollinaris — Macedonius — Nestorius — Eutyches — Second (Ecume- 
nical Council of Constantinople, 381 — Third (Ecumenical Council 
of Ephesus, 431 — Fourth (Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, 
451 — Letter of Pope Leo I. — Henoticon — The Three Chapters 
— Plan of General Councils — Their decisions — Council of Sar- 
dica, 347 — Pelagius— Cassian — St. Augustine. 

Unhappily the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incar- 
nation were destined to be assailed by new forms of 
error.* From the divinity of the Son, attacked by 
Arius, Apollinaris proceeded to deny his perfect 



* Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, and Plotinus, bishop of Sirmium, 
were accused of reviving the Sabellian heresy. The latter was 
deposed from his office, even the Arians agreeing to the sentence. 

In the year a.d. 385, Priscillian, a Spaniard of some considera- 
tion, was executed at Treves, for holding Gnostic and Manichean 
errors. It is the first instance on record of punishing heretics by 
death. His death was instigated more by the civil than by the 
ecclesiastical powers, and the act was regarded with abhorrence by 
the bishops of Gaul. 



THREE FOLLOWING COUNCILS. 49 

humanity; arguing that he took the flesh but not the 
soul of man, which in Him was replaced by a portion 
of the Divinity. Macedonius denied the person and 
Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Nestorius soon after was 
accused of dividing into two distinct persons the one 
Person of Christ; and Eutyches of confounding, some- 
what in the manner of Apollinaris, those two natures 
which in His one person co-exist. To meet these errors, 
new councils of the whole Church were from time to 
time summoned by the reigning emperors. 

Against Maceclonius, the Second Geneeal Council 
asserted the Divine personality of the Holy Ghost; 
and against Apollinaris the same council asserted the 
perfect human nature of Christ. This was held by 
the Emperor Theodosius at Constantinople, a.d. 381. 
An addition was here made to the Nicene Creed, begin- 
ning at the part, 'the Lord and Giver of life/ to the 
end. By another act of this council, the bishop of 
Constantinople was declared to hold the next rank to 
the bishop of Eome. 

Against Nestorius, the Thied Geneeal Council 
maintained the perfect unity of the two natures in the 
person of Christ. This was held at Ephesus under 
the emperor Gratian, a.d. 431. The term Theotocus, 
or Mother of God, was declared appropriate to the 
Virgin Mother of our Lord. On this occasion, also, 
the doctrines of Pelagius were formally condemned. 

Against Hutyches, the Eoueth Geneeal Council, 
under the Emperor Theodosius II., at Chalcedon, 
a.d. 451, declared that in the One Person the two natures 
were nevertheless distinct. A letter of Pope Leo I. to 
Elavianus, patriarch of Constantinople, was read before 
the council, and has ever since been esteemed a sound 
and orthodox exposition of the great doctrine of the 
Incarnation. A canon of this council decrees that the 
bishops of Constantinople, in consideration of the equal 



50 THE THREE CHAPTERS. 

renown of that city, should be held of equal rank and 
dignity with the bishops of Rome. Thrace, Asia, and 
Pontus were to be added to the jurisdiction of the 
former. But to show that the church of Rome had 
already began to aspire to a sort of supremacy, we read 
that the pope's legates on this occasion recorded their 
protest against these acts; but the Imperial commis- 
sioners, without taking notice of this, decided that the 
whole synod had approved and ratified them. 

Certain other acts of this council giving offence in 
the East, the Emperor Zeno proposed an Henoticon, 
or Act of Union, which should acknowledge the creed 
of the council, but not the council itself. Justinian 
went further, and pronounced against a certain ' three 
chapters? (as they were called,) which the council was 
considered improperly to have passed over uncensured; 
these were — (1.) A letter of Ibas, bishop of Edessa; 
(2.) Other writings of Theodore of Mopsuestus ; and, 
(3.) Of Theodoret of Cyrus. Nevertheless, the decrees 
of this and the three former general councils have ever 
been received with great unanimity in all churches, as 
sound and scriptural both in doctrine and discipline. 

We shall have occasion, by-and-by, to resume this 
series of councils. But before we pass on, it may 
be proper to make a few reflections on those which 
have been already mentioned. 

They were all convened by express authority of the 
Roman emperors, and not of the bishops of Rome. 
They were conducted, as near as circumstances would 
permit, on the model of the first primitive council 
mentioned in the Acts;^ inasmuch as the bishops, of 
whom they were chiefly composed, were by represen- 
tation and original election, the same as the ' brethren 
and elders' who then * assembled with the apostles.' 

* Acts xv. 



COUNCIL OF SARDICA. 51 

Their voice, though by no means infallible, was upon 
the whole the best determination that could be had of 
doubtful matters ; and where they treated of revealed 
mysteries, their decisions were little more than a fuller 
statement of the declarations of Scripture, or rather, 
perhaps, a collection in one view of the scattered notices 
in Holy Writ. 

But in vain we search for any precedent among them 
of that supreme power of judging in spiritual causes, 
which has since been pretended by the bishops of 
Eome. On the contrary, the emperors calling the 
councils, and that at the instance of various bishops — 
various bishops presiding at them — the E-oman bishop 
having but a joint voice with the rest in the assembly, 
nor always being the first to sign the decrees — there is 
something in all this so unlike these pretensions, that 
it is no wonder ingenuity has been taxed to supply the 
deficiency of actual records. To give abetter colour to 
the hypothesis, certain other articles were very early 
brought forward by the popes, but their validity was 
never generally allowed in the Church. A memorable 
example may be related. At a council held at Sardica 
in Illyrium, a.d. 347, but from which the eastern 
bishops all withdrew, certain articles passed which 
seemed to give a power of appeal, in certain cases, to 
Eome. These the popes alleged, and particularly 
popes Zosimus and Boniface I., as canons of the general 
council of Nice. The case was tried before a council 
of 214 bishops assembled at Carthage, a.d. 419. They 
also referred by letter to the other patriarchates, where 
the acts of the Nicene council were preserved; but, as 
the result of the inquiry, the council returned for 
answer to Celestine, who meantime had succeeded to the 
papal chair, that the canon alleged by Zosimus was 
entirely spurious, and not to be found in any authentic 
copy of the acts. 



52 FATHERS OF THIS PERIOD. 

It was noticed that Pelagianism was condemned by 
the Council of Ephesus. Pelagius, a native of Wales, 
and Celestine of Ireland, had, together, promulgated 
new and erroneous notions as to the need and efficacy 
of Divine grace; asserting that men can entirely, of 
their own will, turn to God, and work out their salva- 
tion. This gave occasion to long and important con- 
troversies, which not even the powerful pen of St. 
Augustine could effectually compose. Those who are 
indisposed to dogmatise on either side too strictly, refer 
with approbation to the works of the monk Cassian, 
famous for his collection of the early monastic rules 
and institutions, a.d. 425. He seems to have taught, 
that without grace man can do no good thing, nor resist 
any temptation, but that grace is never denied to those 
who use their endeavours ; and that none can too highly 
value the means of grace, or the plain directions of Grod's 
word. 

The fault in all these controversies was the vanity of 
being wise above what is written, and of attempting to 
reduce Divine mysteries to the level of our finite under- 
standings. But it was one advantage of them, that 
they elicited from the most eminent doctors of those 
times compositions which never can be read without 
edification. On the part of the Church, besides St. 
Athanasius* and St. Augustine, already mentioned, we 
may notice particularly St. JE>asil,f, St. Hilary of Poic- 



* To the account already given of this eminent man we may add, 
that the creed which goes by his name is well known to have been 
the work of some later hand, probably in Gaul, about the year 425. 
Some ascribe it to Virgilius Tapsensis; others to Hilary; but there 
is nothing certain. 

t St. Basil, b. 328, at Caesarea. Falling out with his bishop, 
Eusebius, he retired for many years into the deserts of Pontus. 
From thence he was recalled, and succeeded to the episcopal chair, 
370. For the excellence of his writings he was called Basil the 
Great. See Soames' Mask. vol. ii. 324. 

Gregory of Nyssa, b. 332, and brother of Basil, was present, as 



THEIR APPEAL TO SCRIPTURE. 53 

tiers, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, Jerome, and 
Ambrose, bishop of Milan. But what we admire most in 
these earlier fathers is, their sound and independent 
reasoning out of the Scriptures as the alone inspired 
fountains of truth, and their consequent freedom from 
the errors of those who have since taken a much lower 
standard. 



bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia, in the council of Constantinople, 
381. Soames, 328. 

Gregory of Nazianzum,b. 301, and for many years suffragan to 
his father, who was bishop of that city, was invited to the patriarchal 
chair of Constantinople, but he preferred a life of retirement and 
study. He preached for many years with great success against the 
Arians. Soames, 327. 

Hilary, best known for his work de Trinitate, and for several 
excellent commentaries on the Scriptures. Soames, 334. 

Jerome, b. 331, at Stridon, in Dalmatia. Eminent as the trans- 
lator of the Vulgate, or Latin version of the Scriptures, a task to 
which lie was invited by Damasus, bishop of Rome. His early 
years were devoted to the study of the classics. Having improved 
himself in Greek at Constantinople, in Latin at Rome, and in 
Hebrew in Syria, he spent his latter days in the retirement of 
monastic life. By the help of Paula and Eustochium, two Roman 
ladies, he founded a Latin monastery at Bethlehem, where he died, 
420. His caustic humour and cutting pen made him the terror of 
all whom he regarded as heretics. 

Ambrose, b. 340, and the well known author of the Te Beum; 
celebrated likewise for his courageous refusal of the rites of the 
church to the Emperor Theodosius, till he had made reparation for 
an act of cruelty. His character and conduct in a civil magistracy 
brought him into such esteem, that he was promoted at once to the 
episcopal chair of Milan, which he adorned for many years. 



f2 



54 



Chapter III. 

Church in the east — Kestorians and eeoronos — Eutycheans — Mo- 
nophysites and Monothelites — Divisions — Sapor — Donatists — 
Circumcelliones — Genseric— Decline of the Church in Africa — 
Abyssinian church — Coptic or Jacobite churches of Alexandria 
and Antioch — Armenians — Maronites — Chaldaean church and 
Catholikos of Seleucia, Bagdad, and Mosul— St. Thomas Chris- 
tians — Sect of Paulicians and Manicheans. 

Under the influence of so formidable a host of oppo- 
nents, the heresies of Arms and Pelagius were soon 
put to flight, or infected only a few. The Nestorian 
question was not so easily disposed of. Unhappily, it 
appeared that Nestorius himself had not been very 
justly condemned. As bishop of Constantinople, he 
was viewed with jealousy by his rival, bishop Cyril of 
Alexandria. The latter procured the assembling of the 
council which condemned him; but neither Nestorius 
was heard in his own defence, nor were the bishops of 
Antioch, and some other chief bishops, waited for in 
the council. Nestorius had thus good ground for 
alleging, that he was condemned for opinions which 
he did not hold. Beside the suspicions thus thrown 
on his enemies, all he professed to differ about was the 
word 6€ot6kos, or ( Mother of God.' And surely, on the 
other side, may well be alleged the evils which have 
arisen from a term which, intending only to express 
the Divinity of the Son, has led to the almost deifica- 
tion of the Virgin Mother herself. The immediate 
consequence, however, was, that the £festorians (though 
unquestionably entitled to the name of a Church) yet 
ceased to hold communion with those who thus joined 
in their condemnation. We shall see, in the sequel, 
to how flourishing a church they grew in Mesopotamia, 
Persia, and many other parts of the East. 



EASTERN CHUECH. DO 

The Eutycheans in like manner claimed the liberty 
of interpreting their doctrines in their own way. Their 
most numerous sect was that of the Monojphy sites, i. e., 
believers in the one natnre. The Monothelites* were a 
later refinement. 

In viewing the history of the Church at this time, 
we are forcibly struck with the much greater difficulties 
which she had to encounter in the East than in the West. 
Here the greater number of the patriarchates created 
the greater internal jealousies and contentions ; and these 
the eastern emperors did little to soften down, as they 
might have done by the exercise of a mild parental 
authority. The bishops of Borne even took pains to 
inflame them, and with good reason, since all the 
eastern patriarchs were forward to curb the rising 
ambition of that see. Here, too, lived in the greatest 
numbers the persecuted Nestorians ; and, in opposition 
to all, the dissatisfied Monophysites. The most pious 
fled to the deserts, or shut themselves up in cells. 
Monasteries multiplied, but their inmates could do 
little to spread their piety beyond the walls of their 
cloisters. Learning and the arts came suddenly to an 
end ; vice increased in proportion ; and when the Van- 
dals fell upon the coast of Africa, they drove out what 
little was left of religion and knowledge. Nearly co- 
temporary with this was a like incursion of the Per- 
sians, under Sapor, into the Syrian and Armenian 
provinces. The Christians in those parts sustained for 
many years the most savage and bloody persecutions. 

The Donatists in Africa had already prepared the 
way for the troubles there, which in truth ended in the 
almost utter extinction of a Church once so eminent in 



* i.e. — ' believing in the one wills' or, that Christ, as man, was 
animated by no other will but such as he had in common with the 
Godhead. 



56 DONATISTS. 

the annals of the faith. The details of this schism 
cany us back a little way in the history. One Cceci- 
lianus, a.d. 311, having been consecrated to the metro- 
politan see of Carthage in the absence of the JNumidian 
bishops, the latter resented the informality, brought 
all sorts of charges against several of the bishops who 
were present, and refusing obedience to Csecilianus, 
proceeded to the election of a new metropolitan. 
They fixed on Majorinus ; but Majorinus dying, was 
succeeded by Donatus, who gave his name to the fac- 
tion. In a short time they numbered four hundred 
bishops in their communion. They adopted some very 
extreme opinions, as of thinking all other churches 
corrupt except their own, and re-baptizing all who 
came over from them. Their cause was very early car- 
ried before the Emperor Constantine, who appointed 
divers ecclesiastical courts to try it, and at length 
having heard them himself, and adjudged them in the 
wrong, he proceeded against them by very severe fines 
and penalties. Their faction, however, still prevailing, 
another emperor, Honorius, by his tribune Marcellus, 
appointed a final court at Carthage, consisting of 286 
Catholic, and 279 Donatist bishops, when sentence was 
again solemnly pronounced against them. 

After this the Donatist party gradually fell to pieces ; 
but not without leaving behind it in all Africa the 
odour of a contentious and ungovernable spirit, little 
calculated to recommend the profession of Christianity 
to the heathen nations around. To this were added 
the shameful excesses of the Circumcelliones, a set of 
armed marauders from the wilds of JNumidia, who 
thought to aid the Donatist cause by these violent 
means. The consequence was, that when the VandaP 
king and his savage followers landed in Africa, they 



* Genseric, a.d. 429. 



BRANCHES OF EASTERN CHURCH. 57 

treated with no mercy a people whom they might 
naturally think as savage as themselves; but being 
Arians, their fury was chiefly directed against the 
Catholics* or orthodox party. From this shock the 
Church seems never to have effectually rallied. After 
two centuries of ignorance, barbarism, and supersti- 
tion, the country was indeed recovered to the Greek 
emperors by Belisarins (a.d. 534); but poverty, mutual 
distrust, and violence, everywhere marked this unhappy 
people : and when after two centuries more they were 
again invaded by the Mahomedans, the following is 
the melancholy picture of their state, which the his- 
torian of the Eoman empire has drawn : ' The northern 
coast of Africa is the only land in which the light of 
the Gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has 
been totally extinguished. Five hundred episcopal 
churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the 
Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal 
and numbers of the clergy declined ; and the people, 
without discipline, or knowledge, or hope, sank under 
the yoke of the Arabian prophet. Within fifty years 
after the expulsion of the Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa 
informed the caliph that the tribute of the infidels was 
abolished by their conversion. 'f 

Some traces of the Christian religion, however, were 
still to be found in the churches of Alexandria and 
Abyssinia. To the latter country Frumentius had 



* Huneric, in particular, the ?on of Genseric, endeavoured by 
persecutions and tortures to compel all his subjects to become Arians. 
To this persecution belongs a miraculous story, much talked of in 
the history of the times, and the truth of which is well enough 
attested, though ' it may be doubted,' says Mosheim, ' whether there 
was anything supernatural about it.' It is related that a party of 
Christians, whose tongues by order of the tyrant had been cut out, 
were able to speak distinctly, and uttered aloud the praises of 
Christ. 

t See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, ch. li. 



58 COPTS. — JACOBITES, ETC. 

been appointed first bishop by St. Athanasius, so early 
as the fourth century. And a line of Monophysite or 
Coptic* patriarchs was still kept np in both these parts 
of Africa. 

In connexion with the Copts, we may mention their 
brethren in Syria, who from the monk, Jacobus Bara- 
dceus, bishop of Edessa (a.d. 550), had taken the name 
of Jacohites.f They professed the Monophysite doc- 
trine. At Antioch as well as at Alexandria, there has 
been handed down a succession of Jacobite patriarchs; 
the former withdrawing themselves from the orthodox 
communion in the time of Severus, their first patriarch 
(a.d. 518). Assemanni gives an interesting life of their 
learned patriarch, Bar-Hebrceits. Their chief stations 
were at Merdin and Mosul on the Tigris ; but they were 
never so numerous in Syria as the Nestorians and 
Armenians, whom we shall mention next. 

Armenia already numbered many Christian converts 
and martyrs in the Decian and Diocletian persecutions. 
Tiridates, king of Armenia, was converted to the faith 
by Gregory the JEnlightener (a.d. 342) ; but it was not 
till after the council of Chalcedon that this people 
adopted the communion of the Eutycheans, and set up 
an independent patriarchate, the seat of whose govern- 
ment has been ever since at Erivan, near to Mount 
Ararat. 

The Maronites had kept up a small but flourishing 
church, on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, from the 
seventh century. The historian Assemanni was of 
this community (which professed to hold the mean 
between Nestorius and Eutyches), and was employed 

* Called Coptic, from the language they spoke, the Coptic being 
the modern Egyptian. 

t The orthodox Greeks in Syria, about the same time took the 
name of Melchites, from the Syriac for a king; as being adherents to 
the religion of the court. These names still distinguish the respective 
churches in the East. 



EASTERN CHURCHES. 59 

by the church of Rome to write the history of the' 
Eastern Churches — a work which is considered to have 
been executed with credit and ability. About 1182, 
the Maronites were received into the communion of 
the church of Rome, but reserving to themselves the 
use of their ancient liturgy in the native tongue, the 
marriage of the priests, and some other customs of 
their national church. 

The ancient sees of Nisibis and Seleucia, soon after 
the council of Ephesus, took the lead in the I^estorian 
cause. Barsumas, bishop of the former, and Babacus, 
archbishop of Seleucia in the fifth century, are accord- 
ingly regarded in a manner the second founders of the 
Chaldaoan or JNestorian church. Withdrawing from 
their dependence on the see of Antioch, they were 
governed by a patriarch, or Catholicos, of their own, 
who resided first at Seleucia, afterwards at Bagdad 
and Mosul. As Seleucia stood on the site of that city, 
they are sometimes called bishops of Babylon. This 
flourishing church, differing only from the orthodox 
on the one point of the QeoruKos, spread rapidly in every 
direction. The kings of Persia, till the time of the 
Mahomedan conquest, took it under their special pro- 
tection ; and it spread into Thrace and Mysia, and 
beyond these, from the Imaus and a large tract of 
Tartary, to India, and the islands of Socotra and 
Ceylon. 

On the coast of Malabar, the small but faithful com- 
munity of the St. Thomas Christians have ever regarded 
the Chaldcean as their mother church; and even in 
China they made numerous converts to the faith, and 
planted many new churches from the seventh to the 
thirteenth centuries. 

Thus in every part of the East, the Church, rooted 
in the apostolic doctrine and fellowship, seemed only 
to propagate its branches with the greater vigour, the 



60 PAULICIANS. — MANICHEANS. 

more fiercely it was rent by divisions from within, or 
assailed by storms from without. But there are one 
or two remarkable sects that require to be mentioned, 
before we conclude this account of the East. 

1. The sect of the Paulicians. These heretics ap- 
pear to have come originally from Armenia, and settled 
in Bulgaria about the middle of the seventh century. 
They explained away baptism, and treated the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper as a mere figure of speech. 
They distinguished their teachers by the name of 
Notarii, but disallowed the regular order of the mi- 
nistry. They rejected the books of the Old Testa- 
ment, and fell into Gnostic and Manichean errors, as 
to matter, and the creation of the world. Some em- 
perors persecuted them; others sought their conversion 
by more mild and persuasive methods. Theodora, an 
empress so famous for her patronage of image worship 
(a.d. 840 — 855), caused 100,000 of them to be put to 
death. In the eleventh century, many of them migrated* 
into Lombardy, and other parts of Europe. 

2. The sect of the Manicheans. It was the doctrine 
of this sect, that all the evil in the world came from 
the existence of matter, which was under the supreme 
control of a being equal in power to the Almighty, 
whom they named Ahriman. The good principle, or the 
Lord of Light, they termed Yezid, or Ormudz. They 
gained great influence in Persia, and adjacent coun- 
tries, by associating themselves with the ancient priest- 
hood of the Magi, from whom, indeed, Manes was 
descended. As the Magi were no idolaters, but rather 
abhorred the worship of any sensible objects, and as 
they had so distinctly held a fundamental difference 
between good and evil, they unhappily persuaded 
themselves that Christianity had nothing to offer but 



* See Mosheim. Cent ix. p. 2, ch. 5. 



WESTERN CHURCHES. 61 

what they already knew ; and being naturally tenacious 
of their influence with the people, they made a deter- 
mined resistance to the preachers of the Gospel. In 
Christ himself they determined to see nothing but a 
kind of second Mithras, the Persian Apollo, or Ruler 
of the Sun ; and Manes they held out as the promised 
Paraclete. They inculcated a life of great abstinence, 
and laid the chief stress of religion on the mortification 
of the body. They further imitated the Christians in 
having three orders of ministers, answering to Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons ; and their sect so flourished in 
Persia, that from the third century to the tenth it may 
be said to have been the dominant religion. It was 
afterwards displaced by the Mahomedan, which pre- 
vails there to this day* 






Chaptee IV. 

Church in the west — Goths — Theodoric — Clotilda, Bertha, Theode- 
linda — France, Spain, Great Britain — Council of Aries, 314 — 
Ireland — Palladius — St. Patrick, first Archbishop of Armagh — 
St. Columb, St. Aidan, St. Finian — Mission of Augustine the 
Monk — Resistance of British Church — Union under Theodore, 
670 — Remains of independence — Monks of Iona and Lindisfarne 
— Bede — Alcuin — Anglo-Saxon Church — St. Gall, St. Kilian, 
St. Winifried. 

In the West, we shall find Christianity advancing with 
no less eminent success. It has been observed of the 
Goths, that they usually treated with respect the Chris- 
tians of those countries which they invaded. Before 
their descent upon Italy this people had already be- 
come Christians themselves. But their first bishop, 
Ulphilas, while they were yet in Thrace, having been 
brought up among the Arians, they at first had a lean- 
ing towards this sect. Their want of letters must have 



* See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of Roman Empire t ch. viii. and li. 



62 GOTHS. — SPAIN. — GREAT BRITAIN. 

rendered them very indifferent judges as to the many- 
nice points in question. Nevertheless, they were repre- 
sented at the council of Nice by their bishop, Theo- 
philus ; and by degrees, except on the coast of Africa, 
and in some parts of Spain and Burgundy, they shook 
off their errors. Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, was distin- 
guished both as a king and a Christian for his many 
virtues, which were abundantly inherited by the accom- 
plished Amalasontha. The lives of either wonld have 
done honour to royalty, even in the most enlightened 
age. Other queens and princesses from among those 
barbarian tribes exhibited like instances of Christian 
virtue. Indeed, as Christianity had put a special 
honour upon the female sex, so in return they seem to 
have illustrated Christianity by their eminent virtues. 
To Clotilda, Indegonda, and Bertha, in France, Spain, 
and Great Britain, we are indebted, perhaps, for the early 
Christianity of the Frank, the G-othic, and the Anglo- 
Saxon races. TJieodelinda, in Lombardy, is said to 
have been the means of drawing away that whole people 
from the Arian opinions in which they had long per- 
sisted. 

Spain was among the first of the western countries 
of Europe that became Christian. The Visigoths, who 
drove out the Vandals from that country, and with 
them their Arian doctrines, were steady to the true 
faith. But they made a poor resistance to the Maho- 
medans, who (a.d. 712 — 750,) swept away both their 
altars and their throne. The Spanish church, probably 
to defend themselves from the Arian Vandals, very 
early submitted to the Eoman obedience. Thus the 
bishop of Seville was the pope's vicar over Boetica and 
Lusitania; and the bishop of Tarraco over the rest of 
Spain, so early as the fourth century. 

But the history of Christianity in our own British 
isles is second in interest to none. Already at the 



ST. PATRICK. — ST. COLUMB. 63 

council of Aries, a.d. 314, we read of a British bishop, 
Hestituius, being present. To assist the British 
church against Pelagius (himself a Briton), Lupus and 
Germanus came over from Prance, and consecrated 
many new bishops, a.d. 430. About the same time we 
read of Palladius, the first bishop of Ireland whose 
name is on record. He was sent from Home by pope 
Celestine; but Prosper (the chronicler of that pope 
and of his times,) himself admits that his mission proved 
abortive, and that he returned in a few weeks. St. 
Patrick (or Patricius) has a much better claim to be 
called the Apostle of Ireland. His mission, however, 
being derived from Rome, appears doubtful, and is 
never mentioned by Prosper. He was undoubtedly a 
native of this country; when sixteen years old he was 
taken prisoner by an Irish prince, and, while a captive, 
was employed in feeding pigs in the county of Antrim, 
and undergoing many hardships. His heart was soft- 
ened by his own sufferings, and burned with zeal to 
convert the poor Irish amongst whom his lot was cast. 
He obtained ordination, probably in France, or in his 
own country, and became first archbishop of Armagh. 

The Britons, meanwhile, were beginning to suffer 
from their Anglo-Saxon allies, who, being heathens, 
threatened to extirpate Christianity from the isle. 
During these times of peril, the Irish, now a flourishing 
church, helped to keep alive the feeble flame on the 
altars of their brethren in Britain. 

They got the name of a nation of saints. Prom them 
came St. Columb, of Iona, the monk Columhanus, St. 
Aidan, and his successors in the see of Northumberland. 
To these we owe the re-conversion of our northern and 
midland counties after the Saxon invasion ; and such, 
says archbishop Ussher, was the eminence of their piety, 
that (differing as they did, and refusing to join with 
Augustine in the adoption of the Roman ordinances as 



64 MISSION OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

to many points of discipline) they enjoyed the praises 
even of their adversaries. When Oswald, king of 
Northumberland, was desirous of obtaining Christian 
teachers to recover his subjects from paganism, it was 
not to the successors of Augustine (though it was near 
thirty years after his time,) but to Ireland that he 
applied ; and this it was that brought St. Aidan over 
from that country. That saint, St. Einian and St. 
Colman, successively occupied the see of Northumber- 
land.* The venerable Bede, speaking of St. Aidan, 
says : — ' He was careful diligently to perform the 
works of faith, and godliness, and love, according to 
the manner used by all holy men. Whereupon he was 
worthily beloved of all, even of them also who thought 
otherwise than he did.'f 

The mission of Augustine the monk from Rome, to 
reclaim our Saxon forefathers, must now be related. 
The story of the poor Anglo slaves, that attracted the 
attention of Gregory, then a priest of Rome, afterwards 
Gregory the Great, who thought, he said, * they were 
worthy to be angels,' is well known to every reader of 
English history. This was the occasion of the same 
Gregory, when afterwards bishop of Rome, sending 
Augustine (or Austin) with forty monks to East Anglia, 
to convert the Saxon people of whom in that part 
Ethelbert was king. This man has been sometimes 
called the Apostle of England ; and if by England be 
meant that part of it where Augustine and his followers 
were received, this appellation may be allowed him. But 
even there he found a Christian priest, Liudhard, and 
Bertha a Christian queen receiving his ministrations in 
the humble church of St. Martins, Canterbury; and his 



* Northumberland comprised all the northern counties, including 
Yorkshire and across the border. 

t Bede, eh. xxv. Ussher^ Ancient Religion of the Irish, ch. x. 



AUGUSTINE. 65 

authority never extended to the northern, or even far 
into the western or midland provinces. On the con- 
trary, in a council of seven bishops, near "Worcester, 
assisted by the monks of Bangor, his claims were abso- 
lutely rejected. There, in fact, driven by the Saxon 
persecutions, lay the strength of the old British church, 
as testified by the noble churches and monasteries of 
Glastonbury, Bangor, and many others. The British 
bishops declared that they owed allegiance to none but 
the metropolitan Bishop of Caer-leon, upon Usk, in 
Wales. Like the Irish, they differed in many things 
from the practice of the Soman church, as may be 
clearly seen in archbishop Ussher. Even Baronius tells 
us, that they rejected the decrees of the council of 
Chalcedon concerning the three chapters, departing 
therein from the church of Home, and holding with 
the schismatics (so he calls them), that were either in 
Africa or in other countries. # And Giraldus, near 
500 years after, notes of the Irish that they differed 
still in their manner of fasting, the marriage of the 
clergy, and sundry other points of discipline, wherein 
' they followed the Greek more nearly than the Latin 
church.' 

The following account of the reception which St. 
Austin met with from the bishops of the west in the 
council at Worcester, will be read with interest. 
Before the day of the assembly it was thought good to 
ask counsel of a certain anchorite, esteemed for his 
holiness of life, and to know of him whether he thought 
it best for them to yield to the directions of St. Augus- 
tine, or no. He advised them, if he were a man of God, 
to receive the ordinances he brought, and to follow the 
same. And when they asked how they should discern 
whether he were such an one or no, he pronounced this 



* Baron. Annal. torn 7, ann. 566, num. 21. 
g2 



<oG AUGUSTINE. 

saying of our Saviour : — ' Take my yoke upon you, 
and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. 
If, therefore,' said he, * this same Augustine be a meek 
and humble-minded man, it is a great presumption that 
he beareth the yoke of Christ and offereth the same 
unto you ; but if he be stout and proud, he is not of 
Gocl, you may be bold. This, therefore, is my advice, 
let him and his company be first in the place where you 
meet; if, then, you being the greater number, he rise 
not to do you reverence, but despise you, despise you 
also him and his counsel.' Augustine, therefore, first 
entered the place, with singing, procession, and great 
pomp ; and when the British bishops came in, never 
moved to rise or saluted them at all. This they 
taking very ill, gainsaid him in everything, exhorting 
one another to yield to him in nothing. This behaviour 
went sorely to his heart; but he presently discovered, 
by the measures of persecution to which he stirred up 
the king, how justly that venerable assembly had 
judged of his character. There is no doubt that great 
multitudes were put to the sword in the disturbances 
which followed, for no other reason than because they 
would not tamely receive the yoke of a foreign and 
usurping jurisdiction imposed upon them, which neither 
they nor their forefathers had known. 

We presume not to question the good intentions of 
Gregory, when he fixed his heart upon the conversion 
of the Angles, and when he sent Augustine and his 
companions to labour in that behalf. By all who are 
capable of admiring private excellence, or of honouring 
high attainments in piety, the name of the first Gregory 
will ever be held in high remembrance. lie was the 
author of that appendage to the titles of the pope by 
which he styles himself ' The servant of the servants 
of Jesus Christ;' nor have we any reason to doubt 
that in personal humility he was perfectly sincere. 



THEODORE* 67 

But if either lie, or any other of the early bishops of 
Eome as excellent as he, could have foreseen the enor- 
mous abuses which would follow the undue exalting of 
themselves and of their office by their successors, we 
doubt not they themselves would have started back 
with amazement, and acted in many things a very 
different part. 

By slow degrees the British drew nearer and nearer 
to the Eoman party which had established themselves 
at Canterbury ; till at length, under Theodore, a com- 
plete junction took place between the British and 
Anglo-Saxon churches about the year a.d. 670. Eome 
was so wise as not to abuse the advantage thus gained, 
by too much pressing her authority, or forcing innova- 
tions in doctrine or discipline. In her very choice of 
this primate, she had exercised particular care to fix 
upon a man who should be free from ail excessive par- 
tialities for Roman usages, and not be likely to occa- 
sion unnecessary offence. Theodore was an Asiatic by 
birth and education ; and his very age (he was sixty- 
six) had taught him moderation and discretion. He 
came over with Adrian, a learned and distinguished 
African, and these two laboured together in the foun- 
dation of schools which soon acquired the first reputa- 
tion in Europe. Theodore was primate twenty-two 
years, and Adrian survived him another twenty years. 
We are assured that for nearly 200 years after Theodore, 
no official interference through any papal agent was 
exercised by Eome. Thus, in a.d. 792, the bishops of 
this country felt themselves at liberty to reject the de- 
crees of the second .Nicene council, which they declared 
(though approved by the pope) to * contain many un- 
fitting things at variance with a right belief, especially 
by assertions of image-worship, which the Church of 
God execrates/* In the marriage of the clergy, and 



* Ussher's Religion of the Irish. 



68 CHARACTER OF ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. 

in tlieir sentiments regarding the manner of Christ's 
presence in the Holy Communion, they differed mate- 
rially from Home. 

Monks were already numerous in Great Britain and 
Ireland when Augustine came. Their favourite locality 
was on some retired island; Iona and Lindisfarne 
became of great celebrity. The monks of Bangor alone 
were reckoned at 2000, when the council was held to 
debate the question of communion with Home. The 
monks of Iona conformed to Home a,d. 715 ; the 
Welsh much later. 

In spite of errors which were gradually creeping in, 
we look back with something of satisfaction and grati- 
tude to Anglo-Saxon times. It is admitted that from 
our English schools, established by Theodore, pro- 
ceeded the most eminent scholars and theologians of 
the day. JBecle and Alcuin are names ever memorable 
among them : the former a monk of Yarrow (a.d. 726), 
and the Father of English Church History ; the latter, 
the chosen friend and chaplain of the emperor Charle- 
magne. We naturally delight to think of the time 
when our bishops first took their seats by the side of 
the sheriff in the county courts ; when every five hydes 
of land maintaining ' a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a 
bell,' bespoke the universal attention to religious duties. 
We cannot, indeed, speak of those times as entirely 
free from the prevailing vices of the age. In many 
things, as in prayers to the saints, image-worship, and 
an obscure notion of purgatory, the Anglo-Saxon church 
was gradually approximating to the churches in the 
West. But on two points, especially, they much more 
symbolized with the church of England since the days 
of the Reformation ; — viz., in the free use of the Scrip- 
tures in the native tongue ; — and in not being tainted 
by the errors of transubstantiation. On the latter 
point we shall have occasion, hereafter, to cite the 



HOMILIES OF ELFKIC. 69 

authority of the most illustrious scholars of that time.* 
We shall here add, that so late as the eleventh century 
we find an authorized exposition of the doctrine of the 
Sacrament, composed by one JElfric, a learned abbot, 
and approved by two archbishops for the use of their 
clergy and people ; which, says Mr. Soames,f ' esta- 
blishes, incontrovertibly, that ancient England and 
modern Rome are utterly at variance in this essential 
article of faith.' It is also the remark of the accurate 
Mosheim : ' It has been doubted, with great reason, 
whether the reformed church of England gives a 
plainer contradiction to this main doctrine of her papal 
rival, than the venerable predecessor which taught the 
country before J^orman William landed.'J Pains 
appear to have been taken by Lanfranc and other 
]STorman prelates to suppress these Homilies of Elfric; 
which they could the more easily do, as the Anglo- 
Saxon tongue fell gradually into disuse : as attention 
began again to be drawn to this language, the suppres- 
sion was detected. § 

Meanwhile, no country had exerted itself more suc- 
cessfully than Great Britain in carrying the Gospel to 
remoter and less favoured parts. St. Gall, in company 
with Columbanus, went forth into the north of Switzer- 
land (a.d. 610), where he founded a celebrated church 
and monastery of the same name. St. Kilian founded 
a church at Wurtzburgh (a.d. 680) ; St. Willibrod 
laboured for about fifty years as the apostle of Eries- 
land (690-740) : and to omit many others, there was 
none more renowned than St. Winifricd (or Boniface), 
born in Kirton, Devonshire, made archbishop of May- 
ence by Gregory III. a.d. 732; and, after founding 



* See below, cli. vii. 
t See Soames' Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 224, 

1 Mosheim. Cent. xi. p. 2, ch. vi. 
5 See Soames' Mosheim. Vol. ii. p. 080. 



70 ROME UNDER THE EXARCHATE. 

nine bishoprics and several monasteries in Germany, 
he returned, by his own desire, to labour among the 
heathen, and was murdered in the midst of his pious 
undertaking by the Frieslanders, a.d. 734. 



Chapter V. 

The Exarchate — Relation to Exarchate irksome to the Popes — 
Revolt of Rome under Pope Gregory II., 726 — Lombard invasion 
— Pepin, 754; Charlemagne, 774; drive out Lombards — States 
of the church, and Donation of Pepin — Charlemagne crowned at 
Rome, 799 — Iconoclasts — Irene and Second Council of Nice, 
786— Council of Francfort, 794— Ditto of Paris, 824— Theodora 
— General Councils, V., VI., VII. — Quinisext, or Council of 
Trullo. 

Italy being recovered from the Goths under Justinian 
(a.d. 536), Rome returned under the dominion of the 
eastern emperors, who governed it by a duke (or patri- 
cian) and senate, all subject to the Exarch, or imperial 
legate of Ravenna. To the bishops of Rome, though 
they gladly saw the Goths driven out of Italy, yet in 
some respects the change was not for the better as it 
regarded themselves. For though the Gothic kings in 
Italy had never allowed the bishops of Rome to domi- 
neer, and had exercised a veto upon their election and 
consecration, as well as upon the decrees which issued 
from their chair, they at the same time respected their 
influence with the people, and found it good policy to 
secure their favour. 

The emperors, in retaining the right of confirming 
elections, did no more than the Gothic kings had done 
before them. Rut their yoke was more irksome to the 
popes, both on account of the greater distance they had 
to go to perform the accustomed homage, and also 
from their jealousy of the bishops of Constantinople, 
whose very position made them the more natural allies 



REVOLT OF ROME UNDER GREGORY II. 71 

and advisers of the emperors. The popes accordingly 
watched their opportunity to shake off the yoke : a 
very favourable one soon presented itself. 

The dread of image-worship in Christian churches 
was filling the minds of many ; and a fierce controversy 
began to rage. An Iconoclast emperor — i. e., one who 
favoured the demolition of the images — filled the throne 
of Constantinople. The second Gregory, favouring the 
images, hurled defiance at the emperor, whom he also 
excommunicated, and excited a general rebellion against 
him in Home and the provinces of the exarchate. 
From this time, a.d. 726, Eome and its church con- 
tinued independent altogether of the Eastern empire. 
Hitherto, however, the authority of the popes extended 
no further than to the affairs of the church only : but 
new difficulties brought new expedients, and we are 
soon to see them in possession of temporalities, suffi- 
cient to rank them among the temporal sovereigns of 
Europe. About the year a.d. 752, the Lombards in- 
vaded the southern provinces of Italy, took the city of 
Eavenna from the exarchs, and were now threatening 
Eome. It happened at the same time, that Pepin, 
mayor of the palace, and son of Charles Martel, was 
coveting the throne of the French king, Childeric, his 
master, a man of weak and irresolute character ; and 
sent to consult pope Zechary. The pope declared 
himself favourable to the deposition of Childeric, and 
undertook to absolve his subjects from their allegiance. 
Pepin, in return, was to exert his arms in favour of the 
pope, and to drive out the Lombards from Eome and 
the provinces, which they had lately seized. The 
result of this undertaking, and of several successive 
campaigns, left the new king master of Eome and of 
the exarchate. But not contented with recovering 
these from the Lombards, he conferred them as a fief 
on the bishop of Eome, who, from this time, ruled that 



72 CHARLEMAGNE. — IRENE. 

territory with, as much independence as he could desire. 
Then began 'the States of the Church,' as they are 
called; but the internal affairs of the city of Rome 
were left (and so continued) in the hands of a Roman 
senate. The charter granted by Pepin was confirmed 
by Charles, his son, who also completed the conquest 
of the Lombards, a.d. 774. In 799, the same king 
interposing to quell a rebellion of the Romans, came 
to Italy, and received from the hands of the pope the 
crown and title of Emperor of the West. 

The Iconoclast controversy was not one which reflected 
much credit on either party. But it must be remem- 
bered that the Emperor Leo, at the first, proceeded 
with all possible prudence and moderation, opposing 
the abuse of images, but fully allowing their use in 
churches under proper regulations. It was the violence 
of the second Gregory which provoked to violence in 
return; and then began the work of destruction, to 
which, however, the next emperor was desirous of 
putting a stop, though he equally objected to the abuse 
in question. It may be observed also, that the em- 
perors* on this side of the question in the early stage 
of the controversy, were remarkable for the general 
excellence of their character ; nor does any stain, even 
in that corrupt age, rest upon their memory. JNot so 
w r ith the empress Irene, who, after a few reigns, suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the supreme command, and threw 
all her influence into the support of the image-worship- 
pers. This detestable woman, to attain the supreme 
power, poisoned her husband and murdered her son. 
She procured the appointment to the patriarchal chair 
of a creature of her own ; she disbanded a portion of 
the army on suspicion of their favouring her opponents ; 
and thus prepared she affected to call a general council 



* Leo Isauricus, Constantino Copronymus, and Leo. IV. 



IMAGE-WORSHIP CONDEMNED. 73 

at Nice, a.b. 786, where the adoration of images was 
solemnly sanctioned. To this sentence many were, by 
degrees, drawn over ; especially when it appeared that 
the bishops of Rome had the meanness to approve the 
acts of the council, and to shield the conduct of the 
empress. But the advocacy of images had served 
them too well as a pretext for shaking off the yoke of 
their superior, and they could not now be expected to 
recede from it. The authority of this second council of 
JSTice will be better judged of, if we go back a little in the 
history. For shortly before it, and with a much better 
right to be regarded as fairly representing the whole 
Church, another synod (held by the Greek and Eastern 
churches to be the seventh general council) had been 
called by the emperor, Constantine Copronymus, at 
Constantinople, a.d. 754. It was attended by 338 
bishops, who decided that all worship of images was 
contrary to Scripture, and to the sense of the Church 
in the purer ages ; and that even the use of images in 
churches was of dangerous tendency. 

When the acts of the second council of Nice were 
sent into Prance, the emperor Charlemagne caused a 
treatise to be composed (which is still extant, by the 
name of the Caroline Books), in which the acts of the 
council were called in question, and an outcry was 
raised sufficiently showing their unpopularity, both 
with king and people. He moreover summoned a 
council* of his own dominions in the West, to be held 
at Francfort, a.d. 794, which was attended by 300 
bishops from all parts of Gaul and Germany, and where 
all manner of worship of images was severely con- 
demned. This decision was confirmed in another 



* This and the next named councils are not to be accounted 
oecumenical or general councils of the whole Church, but in actual 
numbers they fell little short of them. 

H 



74 LEGITIMATE USE OF IMAGES. 

council, held at Paris, under Louis Debonnair, A.d. 824. 
Nay, in the East itself, the decrees of the Constantino- 
politan council began to prevail over those of the 
second Nicene, till another empress Theodora, (a.d. 
842,) restored at Constantinople the decrees of the 
latter. 

On the whole subject of images, it ought to be 
remembered that one of the earliest councils, that of 
Illiberis in Spain (a.d. 305), expressly prohibited them 
in churches, lest they should become objects of adora- 
tion. Now we know that councils may err; and it is 
not to be expected that all the world should think alike 
on a point confessedly difficult and delicate. The 
memorable decision of Gregory the Great, when 
Severus, bishop of Marseilles, had ordered all the 
images to be torn down and removed from the churches, 
may even be more reasonable and satisfactory. That 
eminent prelate remarked, ' There is a great difference 
between worshipping an image, and learning from the 
history represented by that image, what it is that we 
ought to worship ; for that which writing teaches to 
those who can read, painting makes intelligible to all 
who have eyes to see. It is in such representations 
that the ignorant perceive what they ought to follow ; 
it is the book of the illiterate.' But it would have been 
well for the church of Home if she had always acted 
on this clear distinction. And had she been honest, it 
would have been possible for her to allow the use of 
pictures and images in holy places, and, at the same 
time, to guard strictly against the superstitious use of 
them. But in this, as in many other points, being led 
more by policy than principle, she has declined from 
her primitive rectitude, and licensed such a degree of 
honour and adoration to material objects as is directly 
contrary to a plain command of God. And, unhappily, 



FIFTH AND SIXTH COUNCILS. 75 

lier example has been but too closely followed^ by- 
many of the eastern churches, even of those who, 
during the Iconoclast controversy, f so boldly contended 
for a purer worship. 

At the beginning of this part we mentioned the first 
four, and we are now come to the seventh of the 
councils, called general or oecumenical. In the fifth, 
under Justinian, a.d. 553, a resolution was passed more 
formally condemning the Three Chapters, % The sixth, 
a.d. 681, was against the remains of the Monothelite and 
Arian heresies . In mentioning these councils, it is worthy 
of notice, that in the former the resolution was carried 
in spite of the repeated refusal of pope Vigilius to 
sanction it either by himself or his legates. In the 
sixth, under Constantine Pogonatus, a.d. 681, another 
pope, Honorius, was formally condemned as a favourer 
of the Monothelite heresy ; thus showing how usefully, 
in those days, the synods of the church operated in 
keeping down any such pretensions to infallibility, on 
the part of the Roman pontiffs, as they afterwards 
began to put forth. 

The Greek and Eastern churches acknowledge a sup- 
plementary council to the two last named (a.d. 692) ; 



* The Greek church, however, never went to such lengths in 
image worship as the Komans. [3Iosh., Cent. xi. p. 2, ch. iii. and 
xii.] In the eleventh century, one Leo, bishop of Chalcedon, was 
deposed in a council at Constantinople because he declared that 
worship was due to the images themselves as well as to the persons 
represented by them. 

t From the prominent place which this controversy held in the 
history of this period, the eighth has been called the Iconoclast 
century; for similar reasons the seventh has been termed the 
Monothelite. The ninth and tenth centuries were remarkable for 
the secular exaltation of the episcopal order. The eleventh was the 
Hildebrandic age ; and the two following might be called the period 
of the papal supremacy. 

X See above, part ii. ch. ii. p. 50. These two councils are also 
called the Hndpnd Illrd of Constantinople. 



76 QUINISEXT, OR COUNCIL OF TttULLO. 

' The rules of wMcli,' the council* ordains, ' snail be ob- 
served also in the church of [Rome, as well as in other 
churches.' These canons were not obeyed in the Latin 
church ; but the very injunction of the council, espe- 
cially when taken with the details above given of 
former synods, shows again that up to this time the 
notion of infallibility in the chair of St. Peter had not 
yet been entertained by the general body of the church. 
Pope Adrian approved this council, but owing to its 
having six canons adverse to the discipline of the Latin 
church, it is not admitted by them among the general 
councils. It was summoned by the emperor, Justi- 
nian II. ; and its 102 canons have ever been regarded 
by the Eastern churches as an orthodox body of eccle- 
siastical law. By one of its canons, marriage was to 
be regarded as no bar to the ordination of priests and 
deacons, but married bishops were not allowed. But 
even in this they were deserting the principles and 
practice of the apostles, to say nothing of precedents 
hallowed by the most remote antiquity, and by the 
sanction of the Jewish laws.f 



* Called, from this circumstance, the Quinisext, or otherwise the 
council of Trutto, because held in a tower of the imperial palace in 
Constantinople, called Trullus. 

t Here, however, we may observe again, to the praise of the 
Greek church, that they never went to such lengths as the Roman. 



77 



Chapter VI. 

Charlemagne grants exemptions of clergy — Promotes the establish- 
ment of schools — Revises the Scriptures — Reforms monasteries 
— Monks divided into three classes — (1.) The Coenobites ; 
(2.) The Anchorets; (3.) The Sarabaites — St. Anthony — St. 
Basil — St. Benedict — Monks of St. Clugni — Cistercians — Car- 
thusians — Canonici — Corruption of discipline and morals — Com- 
parative state of the church in East and West. 

A brief but more particular notice of the reforms in- 
troduced or intended by Charlemagne is only a just 
tribute to the memory of one who, even in matters of 
religion, played so prominent a part among the leading 
spirits of his age. We shall also subjoin a short notice 
of those monastic establishments which had now grown 
up on every side, and which it was the earnest endea- 
vour of that emperor to restore to a condition more 
agreeable to the original object of their institution. 

It was by Charlemagne that enactments were first 
made to exempt the clerical order from the jurisdiction 
of the secular tribunals. Liberty was also given them, 
at the option of the parties concerned, to try even 
secular causes in ecclesiastical courts. These exemptions 
and liberties were afterwards abused to avaricious pur- 
poses; they were a fruitful source of contention and 
jealousy between the laity and clergy, and were other- 
wise productive of much mischief; but, at the time, they 
were a wholesome check* upon the violence of the 
barons and feudal lords, and they flowed naturally from 
the superiority of the clergy > who were then the only 
educated class* To Charlemagne is also due the praise - 
of restoring the discipline of the clergy, of encouraging C 
and establishing schools, which now began to be at-- , 

^— v- : I 

S 

* See an admirable note in Soames' Mosheim, ii. 127. 

h2 



V8 MONASTIC ORDERS. 

tached to every parish, as well as to all cathedral and 
monastic establishments; above all, of revising the 
copies of the Holy Scriptures, in which sacred volume 
he recognised^the only final appeal. And, finally, the 
visitation and reform of monasteries engaged a large 
share of the Emperor's attention. We will here sub- 
join an account of those important religious insti- 
tutions. 

Cassian, the first writer from whom we have a com- 
plete and authentic history of the earlier monastic esta- 
blishments, tells us they were divided into the three fol- 
lowing classes.* (1) Coenobites* who lived in common 
under an abbot. (2) Anchorets, who lived retired in 
desert places ; the founders of this order were Paul, the 
hermit, and, afterwards, St. Antony in the Lower, and 
St. Pachomius, in the Upper Thebaid. (3) Sarabaites, 
who lived together in retirement by two or three in a 
company, but after their own humour, and not subject 
to any one. In the famous rule of St. Benedict, f (a.d. 
530,) we find them enumerated in precisely the same 
order; and he adds another class of the Gyrovagi, who 
wandered about unattached from one monastery to 
another. Euthymius and St. Saba were famous among 
the Anchorets, and Theodosius among the Coenobites, 
of Palestine; and there was a famous monastery of 
Latin monks at Bethlehem, in the time of St. Jerome, 
of which that famous father was one. It has been 
already remarked that the Ascetics, whom we read of 
in very early periods of church history, were not so 
much a distinct denomination of Christians, but the 
term was applied to individuals of a morose and retiring 
disposition. But, indeed, none of the orders we have 
mentioned were as }^et bound by the stricter vows and 



* Dupin, Eccl. Hist., cent. v. Life of Cassain, 
f Dupin, Sixth Cent. Life of Benedict. 



ORDERS OF ST, BENEDICT AND BASIL. 79 

rules which, in after times, carne to he enforced. Till 
the time of Basil, bishop of Csesarea (a.d. 365) in the 
East, and of Benedict, of INursia, (in the diocese of 
Eonie), a.d, 529, in the West, there appear to have 
been no vows of perpetual obligation.* St. Antony 
laid down no other rule but the Scriptures; labour and 
abstemiousness were the simple law, and these modified 
according to age and constitution. But now the rule of 
St. Basil prescribed the three perpetual tows of poverty, 
obedience, and chastity. The monks were not yet 
ordained to the offices of the ministry, but were a lay 
community devoting themselves to useful labour, to 
offices of charity, to keeping school, and to a regular 
attendance on the prayers and other prescribed regula- 
tions of their own body. Prayers were not very fre- 
quent at first, usually in the evening and at midnight; 
at each service there were twelve psalms, two lessons, 
and a prayer between the psalms. St. Benedict added 
a matin, and the learning by heart of the psalms, with 
two hours of study, besides the usual seven hours of 
labour during the day. Obedience was exercised by 
submitting to the kind of labour prescribed by the 
superior, as well as to all the rules of the establishment. 
In the eleventh century, as monks grew more and 
more idle, and as some few became occupied in more 
learned pursuits, lay brethren (as they were called) 
were introduced for the special discharge of the more 
menial offices. 

The order of St. Basil subsists, with little alteration, 
and is almost the only order in the East. The Bene- 
dictine, on the contrary, has passed through many 



* There were female orders too. We read of St. Syncletica and v 
Marcella, contemporaries of St. Antony, of Scholastica, sister of 
Benedict, &c. Nuns were forbidden to many, on pain of excommu- 
nication, by the council of Chalcedon. The age of taking the veil 
was regulated by St. Ambrose. 



80 CISTERCIANS. — CARTHUSIANS. 

changes. It was brought by St. Maur into France,^ 
by Hilarion into Syria,f and by Augustin into England, 
where it gradually superseded the older and very rigid 
order of St. Columbanus. The gradual multiplication 
of religious services, and the proportional neglect of 
more active occupations, became, however, a source of 
lamentable corruption. St. Cassino itself, the head- 
quarters of the Benedictines, was gone almost to decay, 
when another St. Benedict, of Aniane, came forward to 
reform the order. It was at the instance of Charle- 
magne, and by decree of a council at Aix (a.d. 817), 
that manual labour was again enforced, and a more 
orderly discipline established. But incessant decay 
and new struggles after a temporary revival appear to 
be the inherent law of these institutions, which have 
led to much positive evil, and, though instrumental 
during the dark ages in preserving correct copies of 
the Scripture, yet have hardly served any good purpose 
which might not have been attained without them. 

Before we shall again have occasion to notice the 
different orders, we shall find the Benedictines branch- 
ing out into other great sub-divisions, as — (1) The 
monks of St. Clugni, near Macon, founded by Wil- 
liam, Duke of Aquitaine, a.d. 900. St. Odo was also 
among the founders; and they soon numbered 2000 
religious foundations. (2) Cistercians, founded a.d. 
1098. St. Bernard belonged to these, a.d. 1115 ; and 
they equalled in numbers the monks of St. Clugni. 
(3) Carthusians, at Chartreuse, founded, a.d. 1084, by 
St. Bruno. The order of Canonici, or Canons Eegular, 



* "Which also boasts of St. Martin of Tours among her earliest 
monks and most famous bishops. He founded schools, and did 
much for learning, A.D. 360. 

t This country was also famous for the marvellous feats of one 
Simon Sti/lites, so called because he lived all day on a lofty pillar, prac- 
tising his devotions beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. See 
Mosheim, Cent. v. p. 2, ch. iii. 



CANONS REGULAR. 81 

is ascribed to St. Augustine ; # but there is little record 
of it in his life. They were companions of the bishop, 
and lived together at the cathedral city, whence they 
went to perform service in the neighbouring districts. 

In the East the. monks have much more retained 
their ancient characteristics of industry and frugality. 
r But in the West they have long been perverted into S 
| mere tools of the bishops of Eome for the promotion 
I of their ambitious ends, and have scandalized the world ■ 
by their unseemly contentions, their artful impostures, ) 
IjyOLSL too often profligate lives. We still owe to thenr" 
some useful improvements in medicine, architecture, 
and many excellent works of sacred and profane litera- 
ture; and it was by them that chantingf was £rst in- 
troduced into the devotional services of the church. 



Ceaptee VII. 

Summary of preceding period — Schools of divinity, the Dogmatic, 
the Scholastic, and the Mystic — Canon of the Mass — Innovations 
— Private confession — Civil disabilities — Pious frauds — Transub- 
stantiation — Eadbert — Ratrani— Scotus — Babanus Maurus — 
Mariolatiy — St. Augustine — Jovinian — Vigilantius — Claude of 
Turin — Vaudois — Neglect of Scripture; Disuse of Councils — 
Papal encroachments — False decretals. 

Upon the whole, the period we have just passed was a 
period of progress for Christianity. The custom had 
not yet obtained of consulting the fathers to the exclu- 
sion of the Scriptures. There was a wholesome liberty 
of discussion ; and it was a common thing for even pri- 
vate individuals to send long distances to consult the 



* See Soames' Moskeim, vol. ii. p. 433, n. 2. 
f ' This was imitated,' says Mr. Waddington, ' in the ninth 
century by the cathedral clergy. The organ appears to have come 
into use about the year 826.' 



82 DOGMATIC AND OTHER SCHOOLS. 

more eminent doctors^ on some abstract point of the 
faith on which their minds were perplexed. The opera- 
tion of the many public councils that were held, though 
apparently tending to narrow the sphere of Christian 
liberty in matters of opinion, really tended to enlarge 
it. Their decisions,f excepting so far as they rested on 
Scripture and Divine revelation, were not deemed infal- 
lible; and we meet with no unfrequent instances where 
they plainly contradicted each other. A still greater 
diversity of sentiment — always excepting clear matters 
of revelation — will be found to pervade the pages of 
the ecclesiastical writers themselves of this period. 

Three kinds or methods of teaching began to prevail 
about the sixth century. (1.) The Dogmatic, which 
was by collection of sentences from Scripture, or the 
Fathers, laid down in the asseverative form, and 
without any proof from reasoning; (2.) The Scholastic, 
or the reasoning method, where matters were more 
discussed, and proofs offered ; and (3.) The Mystic, 
which dwelt on feelings and experiences. 

There was a difference between the Latin and the 
Eastern churches on the words Filioque in the creed, 
and it is not easy to ascertain when they were formally 
received into the JN"icene belief. Even the Latins were 
long averse to the addition, admitting (they said) the 
doctrine, but objecting to an alteration in the words. 

With the growing ascendancy of Christianity, we 
can hardly be surprised at the growing splendour of 
the church, as it began in these ages to be exhibited in 
her external rites and ceremonies. The first Gregory, 
bishop of Rome, was famous for the very prominent 
part which he took in promoting that splendour ; and 
in his time the Service for the Holy Communion being 



• Particularly St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Ili- 
larius, &c. 

t ^rosheim, Cent. vi. p. 2, cli. iii. 



AURICULAR CONFESSION. 83 

newly arranged, and set out with greater pomp, was 
first called the * Canon of the Mass. 5 

Gladly would we have associated with this increasing 
brilliancy of the outward ceremonial of the church a 
corresponding improvement in inward piety and virtue. 
But though she retained something of her primitive 
lustre, yet in this respect, it must be confessed, her 
light was on the wane, or else it was hindered by pecu- 
liar circumstances from ever coming to the full. Prac- 
tices were creeping in, and even doctrines beginning to 
be sanctioned, which, however plausible at their first 
introduction as accommodations to the popular taste, 
or as developments of ecclesiastical power, have no 
foundation in Scripture, and no authority from primi- 
tive Christianity. 

The habit of public confession had very much dis- 
continued since the time of Leo, surnamed the Great, 
bishop of Rome (a.d. 440 — 461). That prelate had 
decided, that penance was much more likely to be duly 
performed, and the duty of confession discharged, 
when the particular sins were not openly divulged, but 
the conscience was opened privately to the priest. 
Still confession was not made a sacrament, or treated 
as compulsory and necessary to salvation. JNo power 
has been more awfully abused than that which Leo 
thus conferred on the ministers of religion, of hearing 
confessions, prescribing penance, and bestowing abso- 
lution in private. And such a power was a clear inno- 
vation on the practice of the primitive church. 

Coupled with this, we may observe another growing 
evil in those times, which was, that errors in religion 
were often punished with civil* penalties, and sins 
thought to be atonedf for by costly donations to the 



* Excommunication was an instance, 
f This Dr. Mosheim traces to the eighth century. 



^L 



s 84 TRANSDBSTANTIATTON, AND 

• church, or other pecuniary considerations. A worse 
error still is that which Mosheim couples with this, as 
the production of even an earlier period, viz., the per- 
suasion that truth and the interests of religion may 
innocently be served by pious frauds, and intentional 
falsehood. 

The question of Transubstantiation* was now also 
beginning to trouble the church. That the Anglo- 
Saxon branch of it was comparatively free from this 
corruption, we have already had occasion to remark. 
To a British champion also belongs the glory of op- 
posing it at its first appearance, when Raschasius 
Radberi, a Benedictine monk, put forth a treatise, 
in which all that the Fathers had written mystically 
and rhetorically on the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, was asserted to be meant literally and without 
a figure. Two eminent theologians, Johannes Scotus 
and Ratram, were engaged by royal authority to con- 
trovert the positions of Radbert. It was also publicly 
denounced by Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, 
who was called the St. Augustine of his age, and who 
was in all respects as fit a person as could be found to 
declare the judgment of the church in this matter. 
But in spite of the protest of these eminent authorities, 
the new doctrine, like that of commutation of penance 
for money, was too fascinating to the monks, and too 
profitable to the priests, to be easily put down. 

We have before remarked (and the remark is worthy 
of repetition) how the progress of Christianity was 
helped by the superior zeal and virtues of many among 
the female sex. It is highly probable that this circum- 
stance, in a barbarous age, led to the almost super- 
human honours which now began to be heaped upon 



* This name first occurs in ecclesiastical documents in the canons 
of the fourth Lateran council under Innocent III., A.D. 1215. The 
doctrine was fully professed in the council of Placentia, A.r>. 1095. 



WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 85 

the Blessed Virgin-Mother of our Lord, as the imper- 
sonation of those virtues. And the practice growing 
up among the people, was, out of policy, adopted by the 
priests. The like was the history of many other cor- 
ruptions. Purgatory and offerings for the dead sprung 
out of popular ghost-stories and heathen mythologies. 
But we might surely admire and encourage the virtues 
of the female sex without making deities of their per- 
sons ; and the adoption of heathen superstitions by 
Christian teachers, is a thing to blush at rather than to 
approve. 

There were other innovations, such as purgatory, and 
veneration of relics, imitation of miracles, and the like — 
profitable to idle monks, but little tending to spiritual 
edification. It was the observation of the great St. 
Augustine,* that the yoke 'once laid upon the Jews, was 
more supportable than that laid on many Christians in 
his age.' But if this was the case in the fifth century, 
what would have been the astonishment of that good man, 
a few ages after, to witness the enormous multiplication 
of those very burdens ; when every saint who died 
gave occasion, by the sale of relics, and by proces- 
sions and pilgrimages to his tomb, for fresh demands 
on the credulity of the poor. Not that these errors, 
any more than those of transubstantiation and image 
worship, had been afc once passively admitted or re- 
ceived without opposition in the church. Many an 
honest reformer protested against them. Such were 
Jovinian, an Italian monk, in the 4th century ; and 
such afterwards Vigilantius, in the fifth ; and Severus, 
in the sixth century. The latter, being bishop of 
Marseilles in the time of Gregory the Great, has been 
already mentioned as ordering the images to be de- 
stroyed which he saw worshipped in the churches. 



Ep. 119, ad Januarium. 
I 



86 TREATMENT OF REFORMERS. 

Vigilantius is even better known by the angry oppo- 
sition which his courage provoked on the part of St. 
Jerome, who spared no pains either to asperse his 
character or silence his voice. His bishop, Exuperius 
of Thoulonse, was unhappily prevailed upon, by the 
persuasions and threats of Jerome, to discourage the 
further proceedings of Vigilantius. He fled from Gaul 
to Barcelona, in Spain, where he perished in a sudden 
irruption of the Goths, about a.d. 409. But his good 
name lived after him; and it is not improbably conjec- 
tured that the Vaudois, who even at that time had 
begun to cherish a purer faith in the mountains of 
Piedmont,^ helped to hand down his memory and his 
sentiments, till they spread very widely in the south 
of Gaul, and led to a greater freedom of opinion in 
those parts of the church. The fruits of this were 
seen long afterwards, as in Claude, bishop of Turin, 
who, in the ninth century, endeavoured to promote 
the same reform in the church which the Gallic 
Presbyter had attempted four hundred years before. 
The abuse of relics, images, saint-worship, and pil- 
grimages, was, as before, the chief occasion of offence 
which provoked his indignant remonstrances. But the 
current set strong against these honest reformers. 
Their voice was drowned in the turbulence of the 
times, or by the clamour of self-interest and priestly 
rule. Above all, the study of the Scriptures was falling 
more and more into disuse; and the liberties of the 
church were beginning to be shackled. Councils be- 
came less frequent and less independent. Bishops 
were learning subservience to the popes ; and the 
popes were more careful to extend their own authority, 
and develope their private schemes of ambition, than 
to maintain the purity of the faith and the simplicity 



* See Mosheim. 



FALSE DECRETALS. 87 

of Christian truth. To this end they employed the most 
unscrupulous means ; an example of which we have in 
the famous ' Decretals of Isidore' (as they were called) 
— an invention of this age — but which were afterwards 
made the basis of the Roman canon-law. These Decre- 
tals exalted the authority of St. Peter and the popes 
to the most extravagant degree. The following is the 
account of them given by Mr. Waddington. * Two 
instruments, now denominated the * False Decretals,' 
and the ' Donation of Constantine,' the two most cele- 
brated monuments of human imposture and credulity, 
were put forth about the conclusion of the eighth 
century, and immediately and universally* received as 
genuine. Probably they were the composition of some 
monk or scribe of that age. Their direct object was 
the unlimited advancement of the Roman See ; and 
for that purpose, the 'Decretals'f furnished the spi- 
ritual, and the 'Donation' the temporal authority; the 
former professing to be a compilation of the Epistles 
and Decrees of Primitive Popes and early Emperors, 
derived from the first ages, the ghastly omnipotence of 
Rome: while the latter proclaimed no less than that 
Constantine, on removing the seat of government to 
the East, had consigned the Western empire to the 
temporal as well as spiritual government of the bishop 

of Rome The monstrous forgery went 

forth and spread itself through the world without 
confutation — seemingly without suspicion ; and it con- 



* Of course lie means ' in the West.' They were never received 
by the Eastern churches. 

t ' Frequently called,' adds Mr. "Waddington in a note, ' the 
1 Decretals of Isidore.' ' There was a celebrated bishop of Seville 
of that name in the sixth century. But unfortunately it contains 
some mention of the sixth general council which was later than the 
death of that Isidore ! The clumsiness of the fabrication is acknow- 
ledged and exposed by Fleury, liv. xliv. ch. xxnV Also by Dupin, 
Biblioth. Ecclesiastique. 



88 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



tinued for above six hundred years to form the most 
prominent, and not the least solid among the bulwarks 
of popery.'* 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ROMAN EMPERORS. 
A.D. 337 A.D. S00. 



Constantino, Constans, and Constantius 

Julian 

Jovian 

Yalentinian and Valens 

Gratian and Yalentinian II 37 

Theoclosius .39 



337 
361 
363 

361 



c 

Eastern branch after 

Arcadius . . . 


Theoclosius. 
. . . 395 


Theoclosius II. . . 
Marcian .... 




108 
150 


Leo the Great, or Leo 
Zeno 


Thras 


157 
171 


Anastasius . . . 
Justinus I. . . . 




191 
518 


Justinian I. . . . 
Justinus II. . . . 




527 


Tiberius II. . . . 




578 


Mauritius . . . 




582 


Phocas .... 




602 


Heraclius . . . 




610 


Constantine III. . 
Constans II. . . 
Constantino IV., or 
natus .... 


Pago- 


611 
612 

669 


Justinian 11. . . 
Fhilippicus Bardanes 
Anastasius II. . 




685 
711 
713 


Theodosius III 

Leo III., or Leo Isaurus 
Constantino Copronymus . 

Leo IV 

Constantine VI 


715 

716 
711 

775 
780 



Western branch after Theodosius. 

Honorius 395 

Yalentinian III 121 

Petronius Maxinius . . .155 

Avitus 155 

Majorianus 157 

Severus 161 

Anthemius 167 

Olibrius 172 

Glycerins and Julius Nepos 175 

Augustulus 176 

conquered by Odoacer, king of 
the Heruli, when the Western 
Roman Empire became ex- 
tinct. 



* Waddingtoii's History of the Church, ch. xiii. 



89 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE POPES* OR BISHOPS 
OF ROME, TO THE END OF THE SECOND PERIOD. 

A.D. 222 A.D. 800. 



Linus 66 

Anacletus, or Cletus ... 78 

Clement 91 

Avaristus 100 

Alexander 109 

Sixtus 119 

Telesphorus 128 

Hyginus 139 

Pius 142 

Anicetus 157 

Soter 168 

Eleutherius 176 

Victor 192 

Zephyrinus 201 

Callistus 219 

Urbanus 223 

Pontianus 230 

Anterus 235 

Fabianus 236 

Cornelius 251 

Lucius ....... 252 

Stephen 253 

Sixtus II 257 

Dionysius 259 

Felix 269 

Eutychianus 275 

Caius 283 

Marcellinus 296 

Marcellus 308 

Eusebius 310 

Melchiades 311 

Sylvester 314 

Mark 336 

Julius 337 

Liberius 352 

Damasus 366 

Siricius .384 

Anastasius 398 



Innocent 402 

Zosimus 417 

Boniface 419 

Celestine 422 

Sixtus III 432 

Leo the Great 440 

Hilarius 461 

Simplicius 467 

Felix II 483 

Gelasius 492 

Anastasius II 496 

Symmachus 498 

Hormisdas 514 

John 1 523 

Felix IV 526 

Boniface II 530 

John II 532 

Agapetus 1 535 

Silverius 537 

Vigilius . 540 

Pelagius 1 555 

John III 559 

Benedict 1 573 

Pelagius II 577 

Gregory L, or the Great. . 590 

Sabinian 604 

Boniface III 606 

Boniface IV 607 

Deusdedit 615 

Boniface V 618 

Honorius 1 626 

Severinus 638 

John IV 639 

Theodorus 1 641 

Martin 1 649 

Eugenius 1 654 

Vitalian 655 

Adeodatus 669 



* Pope (from Papa, or Ua7nra^, Father) was at first the common 
appellation of all bishops and even priests in the East. It was a.d. 
1073 that it was claimed exclusively by Gregory VII. for the 
bishops or patriarchs of Rome. 

i2 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE POPES OR BISHOPS 
OF ROME — continued. 

A.D. 222 A.D. 800. 



Donus 1 676 

Agatho 678 

Leo II 683 

Benedict II 684 

John V. ...... . 6S5 

Conon 686 

Sergius 1 687 

John YI 701 

John VII 705 

Sisinius 708 

Constantinus 708 



Gregory II 714 

Gregory III 731 

Zachary 741 

Stephen II 752 

Stephen III 752 

Paul 1 757 

Stephen IV 768 

Adrian 1 772 

Leo III 795 



Continued, Part III. 



PAET III. 

FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO THE CRUSADES. 



A.D. SCO A.D. 1291. 



Chaptee I. 

Quarrels of Eastern and Western churches — Felix II. and Acacius 
— Title of Universal Bishop — Phocas confers this title on Boni- 
face III., 606 — Photius — Michael Cerularius, and final division of 
East and West, 1054 — Growth of papal power — Leo I. — Gelasius 
— Rome, and the undique fideles*— Roman degeneracy — Otho the 
Great — Henry III. — Hildebrand — Nicolas I. and College of Car- 
dinals — Henry IY. — The Emperor does penance at Canosa— - 
Death of Hildebrand — Investitures— Donation of Matilda. 

"PROM small beginnings the Church of Christ might 
now be seen extending her branches into every land . 
Agreeably to the tenonr of prophecy, the whole world 
was becoming the field in which the good seed should 
spring up, and "gladden the face of the earth. Yet the 
tares were destined to spring up with the wheat. The 
perversions of the Gospel among some, its rejection by 
others, had already called down the just judgments of 
Heaven. The Mahometan could point to the growth 
of his religion, no less than the Christian. A circum- 
stance which, we cannot but believe, a greater purity of 
faith and practice among the professors of Christianity 
might effectually have prevented. It would be unjust, 
however, to attribute all the evil to this one cause. 
Dissensions within the church had existed from the be- 
ginning. So far from declining, they were now on the 
increase. And it is by these, as much as by the corrup- 
tions which occasion or encourage them, that the 
enemies of the faith obtain their advantage. 



92 DISPUTES FOR ( UNIVERSAL BISHOP.' 

Unhappily, at the period on which we are now enter- 
ing, the separation which had long threatened to divide 
the Eastern from the Western Church, became every 
day widened. Beginning in the mutual jealousies of 
the Eastern emperors and the bishops of Rome, it was 
inflamed by a decree of the council of Chalcedon (a.d. 
451), annexing Thrace, Asia, and Pontus, to the patri- 
archate of Constantinople — by subsequent annexations 
of other disputed territory # — by the mutual excom- 
munications of Eelix Il.f and Acacius, bishops of the 
rival cities of Rome and the Eastern metropolis, and 
by other causes. Then came a remarkable controversy 
about the title of Universal Bishop. This style had 
been just assumed by the Eastern patriarch, with con- 
sent of certain of the emperors, They probably meant 
no more by it, than to infer a primacy over all the 
churches of the JEast. Rut when John, patriarch of 
Constantinople, persisted in claiming this title (a.d. 588), 
it so displeased pope Gregory I. that he denounced it 
in the strongest terms, declaring that were he to adopt 
it himself, or if any other bishop did so, it would fall 
little short of blasphemy, and betray the very spirit of 
Antichrist. Yet, not many years after, the same title 
was confirmed by another emperor, the usurper PJiocas, % 
to Boniface IIL, a successor of Gregory. And of this 
acquisition the Romish see has boasted not a little; 
though what importance can be seriously attached to a 
title thus bandied about from bishop to bishop, it is 
difficult to conceive. 

The rivalry of the churches continued notwithstand- 
ing this act of Phocas. The elevation of Photius, in 
the ninth century, to the patriarchal see, in room of 



* As (1) Illyricum and Macedonia; (2) Apulia and Calabria, 
t a.d. 483. Because Acacius favoured the emperor Zeno and the 
Henoticon. See Part II. ch. ii. X a.d. 606. 



SCHISM OF EAST AND WEST. 93 

Ignatius deposed, (wlio had been the papal nominee,) 
greatly fomented these unhappy differences. A charge 
of heresy was speedily got up against Photius ; but, 
unjustly condemned, he retaliated the charge by imput- 
ing a long catalogue of heresies to the Roman church. 
His authority was not to be despised ; for a more able 
and accomplished prelate had never filled the patriarchal 
chair ; jet we read the articles in the charge with some 
surprise, that they were not more numerous or more 
alarming.* The catalogue was, however, increased 
under subsequent patriarchs; till, under Michael Ceru- 
larius, we find it consisting of ten. It was nowf that 
the fatal breach became permanent; the Homan legates 
placing upon the altar of St. Sophia in Constantinople 
a solemn act of papal excommunication against Ceru- 
larius and all the Greek church. The separation in 
external communion of two such important churches 
would have been less to be regretted if, on either side, 
the occasion had been improved to shake off growing 
errors, and to amend prevalent corruptions. But in the 
West especially there was little disposition, amidst the 
general ignorance, to attend to any speculative points 
(and as such these questions were then regarded) ; and, 
perhaps, there was some excuse to be found in the pre- 
vailing turbulence of the times, in the rudeness of 
manners and the wide-spread remains of barbarism. 

It was the art of the wily and ambitious Hilclebrancl 
to turn all these circumstances to his own advantage. 
Other bishops of Home before him had not been wanting 
in endeavours to advance the pre-eminence of their see. % 



* Under Photius there were only five articles brought against the 
church of Konie. One was, ' That they prohibited their priests to 
marry, and separated from their wives such as were married when 
they went into orders.' Waddington, ch. xii. 

t A.D. 1054. 

t Leo, 440 — 461. Gelasius, 495. Compare with this the account 
of the papal encroachments in Part II. ch. vii, 



94 THE PAPACY OF GRADUAL GROWTH. 

We have just seen an instance, in their unscrupulous 
adoption of a title once repudiated by their own pre- 
decessors. To be styled ' First among the Bishops/ 
and to have a certain superiority in station duly reco- 
gnised, was the ambition of Leo I., # of Gelasius, and 
many others. A superiority in appeal had also been 
accorded them, from time to time, by special edicts of 
the Eoman emperors .f But emperors granting it could 
not make the right; and, consequently, we find the 
practice of the church very much varying on this head, 
sometimes appealing to Rome, sometimes from it, and 
sometimes a private council of bishopsj sitting in judg- 
ment on the pope himself. At the most, their authority 
thus far was merely that of influence and advice. By 
degrees they pushed that authority further, and the 
ninth century, § particularly, is remarkable for efforts of 



* By Leo I. the right was first obtained of being represented by a 
papal Legate at the court of Constantinople. It was also under this 
Leo that private confession took the place of public. See again, 
Part II. ch. vii. 

t Particularly Gratian, Valentinian, and Justinian. 

% A council of seventy bishops at Parma, a.d. 500, sat in judgment 
on pope Symmachus. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. lib. xxx. an. 501. As 
it comes in order of time, we may just mention the ridiculous story 
of pope Joan, a female pope, the supposed successor of Leo IV., 
855. Following the fortunes of a monk, her husband, she disguised 
her sex, and came to Rome, where her talents procured her the 
papal chair. But during a procession to the Lateran Church, being 
in a state of pregnancy, and her strength failing her, she fell on the 
ground and expired ; when her sex was detected. There seems 
some doubt of the truth of the story; but it is singular, that it was 
never disputed till the Reformation, 600 years afterwards ; till 
which time it had been read without shame. Moreri says that 
more than seventy orthodox writers have given credit to the story 
of pope Joan, and he says it can only be doubted because so 
discreditable to the pontifical chair — a strong admission from a 
Roman-catholic author. See Moreri, Grand Dictionnaire Historique, 
Paris, 1759. But what must we think of the state of a church when 
such a tale, even if not true, could be so long read without shame, 
and pass current without indignant denial. 

§ Guizot traces the first consolidation of the papacy to the reign 
of Nicolas L, a.d. S68. We have already seen, that the famous 



ORIGINAL PRE-EMINENCE OF ROME. 95 

this kind, and for the singular success which attended 
them. We should here pause to inquire how far they 
had right on their side, or what account can be given of 
this sudden and remarkable success. 

So long as Rome was the capital city of the empire, 
it was the natural centre of attraction, and chief place 
of resort to all around. This gave opportunities, as a 
church began to be formed in that city, # for the bishops 
of other places, who, from time to time, came up to 
Borne, to discuss and compare their different dioceses 
together : and this concurrence, as it were, of indepen- 
dent testimonies supplied a wholesome check upon any 
innovations that might arise in doctrine or discipline, 
and served to keep the stream pure and undefiled. 
But, in due time, these advantages were lost to the 
church of Eome, partly from the city ceasing to be the 
capital, partly from the corruption of individual churches, 
and partly from the loss of that liberty and indepen- 
dence which alone could make their united testimony 
to be any guarantee of truth. This at once accounts 
for the esteem in which, for many ages, the decisions 
of the bishop of Eome were justly held in the church, 
and for the suspicion with which, subsequently, those 
decisions came to be regarded. Besides this, the 
general character of its early bishops stood high for 



Decretals ascribed to Isidore came out at this time ; see above, p. 2, 
ch. vii. Adrian II. made an unsuccessful attempt to take away the 
crown of France from Charles the Bald, a.d. 870. But Nicolas I. 
succeeded in claiming (1) the right of hearing appeals ; (2) right of 
calling councils ; (3) right of having legates at every court. 

* And this is all that seems to be meant in the famous passage of 
Irenseus, lib. iii. ch. iii., ad hanc enim ecclesiam (sc. Romanam) 
propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire 
ecelesiam (hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles) in qua semper ab his 
qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis traditio. 
The stress is on the words, twice repeated, ' Qui sunt undique fideles: 
He does not say that the faith has been preserved by Mo?ne t but by 
those who came up to Home from other parts. 



96 IMPERIAL INFLUENCE. 

piety and virtue. One might have supposed that, as 
they rose in pretensions, the chiefs of the church would 
have been careful to advance in higher qualifications. 
The contrary was the case. No sooner was their ambi- 
tion gratified, and their independence secured by the 
territorial and titular honours granted by Pepin, and 
secured to them by Charlemagne, than the court of 
Rome became a bye-word for every vice that could 
degrade humanity. The chair of St. Peter was at one 
time # bought and sold ; at another, the creatures of in- 
famous women stood highest for promotion. The evil 
rose to such a height that the secular power was at 
length forced to interfere. Otho the Great, and his 
successors, took upon them, in their presumed capacity 
of emperors, to superintend more diligently the affairs 
of the church. By a more careful exercise of their 
ancient prerogative of confirming the elections, as well 
as by their general influence, they secured, for a time, 
the appointment of a better race of popes. Henry III. 
even ventured to deprive the people and clergy of Borne 
of their right of election ; and, taking it into his own 
hands, he appointed three in succession, men of eminent 
talent, and every way fitted for their office. But the 
fatal example of the pretended heads of the church had, 
meanwhile, spread its infection everywhere, and the cor- 
ruptions grew up under the very hands that attempted 
to prune them away. The profligate sale of benefices 
to the highest bidder, and the loose and irregular lives 
of many of the clergy, were the great and crying evils 
of the day. 

It was under the plausible pretext of reforming these 
abuses, that Ilildebrand — himself above the lower vices 
which had degraded the character of so many of the 
popes — commenced his memorable career. He had 



* See Lives of Benedict JX. and Benedict X., 1046, 10o 



PRETENSIONS OF HILDEBRAND. 97 

already been influential in the councils of the three 
popes who immediately preceded him. And it was 
probably at his instance that Nicolas II. had effected a 
late important change in the mode of the papal elec- 
tions ; transferring' them from the hands of the bishops, 
clergy, and people in general, to a select body of the 
cardinals* (as they were called), and leaving to the 
emperors the right of confirmation. Hildebrand, haying 
in a manner procured his own election to the papal 
chair, proceeded at once to the measures which, doubt- 
less, he had long since concocted in his humble cell at 
Clugni, perhaps in his father's more humble workshop 
in Tuscany. As the supposed successor of St. Peter, 
and giving himself out as Yicar and Vicegerent of Christ 
upon earth, he aimed at the subjugation of all authority, 
temporal as well as spiritual, to the despotic power of 
the pope. To this end he determined to cut off his 
clergy from all civil ties, and denounced matrimony as 
absolutely unlawful amongst them. To the kings and 
laity he declared that they must renounce all right of 
presenting to the higher benefices, by the accustomed 
form of investiture ; and that whoever received a bene- 
fice from any layman should be instantly regarded as 
excommunicated from the church. To discourage pro- 
vincial councils, and thus do away the liberty and inde- 
pendence of all other churches, he proposed further to 
decide differences by a council of bishops to be held 
annually at Home. He claimed further, that as Yicar 
of Christ, to whom all things in heaven and earth belong, 



* The College of Cardinals, (so called) consisted first of seven 
cardinal bishops, having sees in Rome or its vicinity, and of twenty- 
eiglit cardinal priests, incumbents of parishes in Rome. The other 
clergy and the people had still the right of approving the cardinals' 
choice. But under Alexander III. (1167) this right was taken away : 
the college received sundry accessions in compensation. See Wad- 
dington, ch. xvi. and xxviii. 



98 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR WITHSTANDS. 

even kings should do Mm homage for their crowns. 
Such was the daring scheme by which he sought to con- 
stitute himself, and his successors, the supreme deposi- 
taries of all authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical; 
grounding that authority on a spiritual claim alone, as 
the Vicegerents of Christ upon earth. 

An important accession of territory fell into the 
Eomish see during the pontificate of Gregory, when 
Matilda, of Tuscany, bequeathed to it her large patri- 
monial estates. The grant was long contested by the 
emperors, but finally confirmed to the popes by 
Frederic II. 

In his own generation his plans met with very 
various success ; but they laid the foundations of many 
a struggle and many a scene of war and bloodshed in 
the generations to come. Robert Guiscard, the jNTorman, 
in reward of services performed by him against the 
Saracens, consented to receive the crown of Sicily, as 
the gift of Gregory, and to do homage for the same. 
But our own William absolutely refused* to do homage 
for the throne of England, though, after the fashion of 
the day, he had used a consecrated banner in the battle, 
by which he won it. The kings of Prance and of Hun- 
gary refused the tribute demanded of them j while the 
German emperor, Henry IV., stood out, as long as his 
armies and other resources served him. It was this 
emperor who, having weakened his credit at home by the 
profligacy of his younger days, and afterwards fought 
bravely to recover his legitimate authority with his 
people, was at length reduced by the fortune of war to 
seek an interview with the pope. 

Gregory was on his way to attend a council in the 



* ' Fealty I have not done, nor will I do it,' is the answer which 
Mosheim puts into the mouth of William ; and adds, ' with this 
answer Gregory had to be contented ; for though he might fear no 
other, he stood in fear of William.' Soames' Mosh. vol. ii. p. 318. 



HENRY IV. CANOSA. — DEATH OF GREGORY. 99 

following year, where the claims of Henry and of the 
rival emperor were to be adjusted. Henry, with his 
wife Bertha, and infant child, though in the depth of 
winter, and over the trackless passes of the Alps, deter- 
mined to anticipate the pope's arrival in Germany, and 
make terms with him in person, and in his own country. 
Gregory, in the castle of Canosa, shut himself up for 
three days after the royal petitioner had reached his 
gate; and delayed the desired interview, while Henry, 
as a penitent, was compelled to stand with bare feet in 
an open court upon the snow; and when at last he 
admitted him, it was only to the most humiliating terms. 
But in this policy, and in his subsequent breach of a 
solemn promise, the pope over-reached himself, and he 
lived to witness the imperial vengeance. He was be- 
sieged in Home, and he died in exile at Palermo. He 
was succeeded by two of his own personal friends and 
disciples ; so great, even dying, was the influence which 
this remarkable character exercised in the church. 

That he aimed at some useful reforms it is impossible 
to deny. And if he had had nothing else in view but 
the reformation of the church, or if he had proceeded 
in that according to the rules of Scripture, all honour 
would have been due to his memory. But this praise 
cannot now be accorded him. In the very first measure, 
whereby he claimed the exclusive right of investiture 
to benefices, and denied it, on pain of excommunication, 
to all laymen whatsoever, he far exceeded the limits of 
his authority. Was a pope less likely to traffic in pre- 
ferment than an emperor ? And, again, when the car- 
dinals obtained the exclusive right of election, how 
had the rest of the clergy forfeited their share ? Eome 
had certainly long ceased to be the model of purity in 
these respects. The traffic among ecclesiastics for the 
papal chair had been as notorious as any other vices in 
that corrupted city. The best popes had been appointed 



100 PLEA OF UNITY. 

by the emperors themselves;* and if they had thus 
done credit to their judgment in the nomination of 
popes, why were they less worthy of confidence in their 
appointment to inferior offices in the church ? But in 
truth the power aimed at by Gregory VII. has been 
sufficiently shown by its results to be a greater power 
than can safely be entrusted to mortal man. It has 
proved as inconsistent with the civil liberties as with 
the spiritual welfare of society. The necessity of main- 
taining the unity of the church may be plausibly alleged 
in its behalf. Bat the unity designed for the church 
catholic is not necessarily a Roman unity. On the con- 
trary, Eome has been one great cause of offences, and, 
therefore, of disunion. It were devoutly to be desired, 
that the church were, indeed, one and ' at unity within 
itself;' but the likeliest way to secure such unity is surely 
not by compulsion, but by good will and mutual for- 
bearance. The wrong step was taken when the yoke of 
obedience to one supreme head upon earth was at- 
tempted to be imposed upon the churches, contrary to 
the ancient discipline. The attempt may have been 
made before Gregory, and not matured till after him ; 
but, to whatever period it may be traced, it was the fore- 
runner of all the worst innovations and abuses ; and 
the only remedy is to be found in a return of the 
churches to that independence, which properly belongs 
to them, and which distinguished the constitution of the 
church of old. 

* Henry III. appointed three popes in succession. 



101 



Chapter II. 

Question of Investitures settled at Worms, 1122 — Innocent III. — 
Pandulph and King John, 1212 — Interdict — Roman senator — 
Saladin tax — Provisions and Reservations — Fourth Council of 
Lateran, 1215 — Wars of Guelph and Gliibeline — Frederic II. 
and Gregory IX. — Papal insults — Innocent IV. — Death of 
Frederic — Joy of Innocent — Boniface VIII. 

The projects of Hildebrand were carried out with 
sufficient vigour by his successors. The question of 
investitures, after a war of nearly sixty years, was 
brought to an amicable settlement at the council of 
Worms, 1122; wherein it was agreed, that the pope 
should invest by the ring and crosier as the insignia of 
spiritual authority; the emperors by the sceptre, as 
marking the homage due to them on a temporal account. 
Thus the substitution of one form for another — the 
sceptre for the crosier — terminated one of the most dis- 
astrous wars that ever divided Europe. Elections 
to the higher benefices were henceforth to proceed 
canonically, that is, by the chapters of cathedrals or 
other constituent bodies ; but the imperial confirmation 
of the papal elections was still continually disputed ; 
and after the time of Hildebrand > that ancient prero* 
gative was never formally recognised on the part of the 
popes, and the claim to it was usually attended with 
renewed hostilities and contentions. 

Of all who followed Gregory VII., none displayed 
more energy in practically developing the Romish 
system, than Innocent III. It was this pope that 
sent Pandulph into England, 1212, to depose king 
John, and give away the kingdom to Philip of France ; 
Pandulph held the crown in his hands ; and John only 
recovered it by stooping to the meanest conditions, by 
which he allowed himself to be the vassal of the pope, 
k2 



102 MEASURES OF INNOCENT III. 

and bound to do homage for his dominions, for which 
also he was to pay the annual tax of 1000 marks, as 
well as Peter's pence upon every house. By these and 
similar exactions in other countries, Innocent con- 
tinued to fill all the higher offices in church and state 
with creatures of his own. He gave away the crown 
in Armenia, Bohemia, and Moravia. On more than 
one occasion he put in force the extreme measure of 
interdicting* all the rites and offices of religion, 
wherever any people had displeased him ; and thus 
he treated France, England, and Portugal. In Home 
itself he assumed the nomination of senator ; an office 
in which was merged the last faint shadow of the 
ancient republican forms. But the senator had hitherto 
been styled the imperial prefect, sufficiently indicating 
the source to which he looked for his appointment. INot 
content with thus insulting the temporal power, he 
laid a tax on the clergy of every country, nominally to 
defray the expenses of the crusades ; he at the same 
time claimed the right of nominating to all the higher 
ecclesiastical benefices : and not only so, but also of 
reserving any future vacancies that might arise, and to 
which he appointed beforehand. Such was the iniqui- 
tous system of papal provisions and reservations, so long 
the scandal of the church. And he was the first who 
invented the specious plea whereby he justified these 
usurpations, of thereby providing, 'that no heretics 
might invade the fold.' Upon the same pretext he 
justified that systematic persecution of heretics, which 
from his time began to be the very law of the Komish 
Church. To most of his measures he obtained a kind 



* 'By an interdict, all the rites of religion were suspended. No 
bell was heard ; no taper lighted ; no service performed ; no church 
open. The dead were either interred in unhallowed ground — or 
kept unburied; — the infliction affected every family in its tenderest 
and holiest feelings.' — Southey. 



WARS OF FREDERIC II. 108 

of seeming assent from the famous council over which, 
he presided — the Fourth Later an, 1215. In a word, it 
was the one aim of his life to stretch to its utmost 
bounds the authority of the court (we can hardly any 
longer call it merely the church) of Rome, over all 
temporal and all spiritual jurisdiction, within the city 
and states of Rome and without, over his own subjects 
and over heretics alike. 

We might pursue the details of the long contests by 
which these successes were won. The history of that 
period is a history of wars, and very little else. And 
it is to be feared, in following the fortunes of Guelph* 
and Ghibeline, the interest we feel is oftener that of 
watching a game between rival politicians than of 
tracing any real advance in the kingdom of Christ and 
the cause of truth. The reign of the Secondf Frederic 
was a continual interchange of haughty defiances and 
feigned reconciliations. There might have been verbal 
differences or distinctions in shades of orthodoxy, but 
the general characteristic of the war was that of fight- 
ing for fighting's sake, and because each was top proud 
to yield. Frederic was a persecutor of heretics as 
well as the popes, his rivals. It is therefore scarcely 
credible, that religion was the real ground of the long 
and disgraceful contests between them, though religion 
was often pleaded. And little as in many things we 
can extol Frederic, yet on his side no doubt the excuse 
was the best. He had the heart of a warrior and the 
blood of kings in his bosom. Can it not well be 
imagined how the kingly heart in Germany must have 
burnt with secret resentment at old indignities ? Sons J 



* Guelph and Ghibeline. The party in the interests of the popes 
bore the name of Guelph, from a Saxon family of that name. 
Ghibeline was the designation of the imperial party. 
t a.d. 1212—1251. 

% For example, the two sons of Henry IV. and the son of Frederic 
Barbarossa. £ec Sismondi's Kalian Republics, 



104 DEPOSITION OF FKEDERIC. 

raised in rebellion against their fathers — the peace of 
families and of kingdoms interrupted by papal intrigues 
— such had been the acts wherein the court of Rome 
had inaugurated her newly gotten political power. 
One day you might see an emperor* forced to hold 
a stirrup to a pope, and to perform on foot the menial 
office of a page ; and at another, a pope kickingf from 
the head of his rival, as he stooped to do homage, the 
very crown which he wore. In such petty acts had the 
popes delighted to play off their authority. Was it 
wonderful that in Frederic the spirit of resentment 
should at length break out ? 

It was the time of the Crusades ; and Frederic, at 
the bidding of the pope, had consented to go out to the 
Holy Land. A malady detained him as he was em* 
barking from Otranto. Gregory IX., enraged at the 
delay, had recourse to the favourite weapon of the 
Vatican, and pronounced the emperor excommunicate. 
Frederic, while still under this sentence, went and 
mediated the celebrated truce with Saladin, which 
brought to conclusion the Fifth Crusade. In his ab- 
sence the pope had invaded his dominions in Apulia. 
Retaliations naturally ensuing, the next movement of 
Gregory was to call a council at Rome to depose 
Frederic. A Pisan fleet, well disposed to the imperial 
cause, made prisoners of the prelates, and prevented 
the meeting of the council. A few years after, pope 
Gregory died, and was succeeded by a still more des- 
perate partisan of the rights of the church in the person 
of Innocent IV. This prelate boldly put to sea, and, 
crossing over to France, succeeded in convening the 



* Frederic Barbarossa was thus treated by Adrian IV. — noted as 
the only Englishman who was ever made pope, 1154. 

f This happened to Henry IV. in doing homage to Celestine III. 
A.D. 1198. 



HEIGHT OF FAPAL POWER. 105 

desired council at Lyons,* a.d. 1245. The proceeding 
was not very regular, but lie succeeded in obtaining the 
sentence of deposition so long desired. The monks 
everywhere busied themselves in spreadiug through 
the imperial ranks the terror of the church's sentence. 
Frederic did not long survive this last effort of the 
spiritual arm, but died of dysentery, just as he had 
volunteered to make atonement by joining St. Louis in 
a new crusade. Historians enlarge on the frantic joy 
displayed by Innocent, when he heard of his enemy's 
decease. 

There is little to be learnt by the details of these 
wars. But the relation, slight as it is, may show what 
the tendency was of the enormous pretensions of the 
papacy. Can we hesitate to pronounce, that the effect 
was rather to secularise the church, than to spiritualise 
the state ? — to give to Christian bishops the air of 
soldiers, rather than to impart to soldiers the spirit of 
the Christian ? 

It has been curiouslyf reckoned, that at the deposi- 
tion of Frederic, the power of the papacy had reached 
its highest mark. Nothing had been neglected to 
render its authority as dazzling and as imposing as 
possible. Every day the popes became louder in their 
pretensions, and more expert in the language of infalli- 
bility. Splendid in the pomp of their processions — 
shrouded in the mystery of imputed miracles — some- 
times they affected the style of the ancient prophets, 
sometimes that of oriental monarchs, and sometimes 



* At this council the red bonnet was first conferred on the cardinals 
in token of their being ready to shed their blood for the faith. The 
papal tiara, or triple crown of the popes, dates only from Urban V. 
a.d. 1362. Till the time of Boniface VIII., a.d. 1295, they were 
contented with a single crown, called the crown of Constantine. 
Thus they increased the symbols of power in proportion as its reality 
was dwindling away, 

1 Waddington, 443, 



106 GRADUAL SUBMISSION OF ENGLAND. 

they adopted that which in the prophecies belong to 
the Messiah himself. Thus they imposed on the 
minds of a simple and unenlightened age, and suc- 
ceeded in establishing an almost unlimited authority. 
The haughty language of Boniface VIII. makes a fit 
climax to the whole. ' Finally,' said he, * it is necessary 
to everlasting salvation that every human creature be 
subject to the pope of Koine.' 



Chapter III. 



British and Anglo-Saxon Churches united under Theodore, 668 — 
State of learning under Theodore, Alfred, and the Norman line 
— Odo and Dunstan — Dunstan introduces the Benedictine orders, 
968 — Ancient Church of Ireland, how affected by the Danes — 
Danish and Anglo-Norman settlements—' The Pale' — Romish 
intrusion — Cardinal Paparo brings four palls from Rome, 1152 — 
Adrian IV. confers Ireland on Henry II. — English affairs — 
Lanfranc and Anselm, archbishops of Canterbury, 1070, 1093 — 
Theobald, ditto, 1138, and Papal Legate — Constitutions of Cla- 
rendon — Magna Charta. 

It will serve at once to illustrate the history of the 
times, and to instruct the English reader, if we now 
proceed to consider how England became gradually 
embroiled in the same sort of disputes which were 
agitating the rest of Europe. We noticed, in a former 
part, the mission of Augustine to our Saxon forefathers, 
and the friendly intercourse then subsisting between 
the British and Irish churches. Of these the Irish 
held out the longest in refusing to coalesce with Home, 
nor was the coalition effected till the time of Henry II. 
(a.d. 1172), in a manner we shall presently relate. The 
British more gradually amalgamated with the Anglo- 
Saxon, as this with the Homish, communion. In the 
time of Theodore, seventh archbishop of Canterbury 
(a.d. 670), as it has been already noted, all Britain came 



ST. DUNSTAN INTRODUCES BENEDICTINES. 107 

under the jurisdiction of that see, and conformed to 
the rites and discipline of the church of Home. Yet 
this was managed with so much address, and all appear- 
ance of intrusion so carefully avoided, that for near 
two hundred years after Augustine, no instance occurred 
of the exercise of any papal commission in England.^ 
England now began to be renowned for her schools, 
under Theodore and his successors. Unhappily, in the 
ninth and tenth centuries, partly through the incur- 
sions of the Danes, and partly through the decline of 
morals and discipline in the monasteries, this learning 
fell so completely into decay, that, when Alfred came 
to the throne, there was scarcely a priest in the king- 
dom who understood Latin enough to construe his 
daily prayers. And, spite of the noble exertions of 
Alfred himself, this condition remained till the time of 
the Norman conquest. After this, an eminent revival 
of literature was effected by Lanfranc and Anselm, 
successively archbishops of Canterbury ; and the Uni- 
versities of Oxford and Cambridge became celebrated 
seats of learning and the arts. 

The monks, who, after the example of Bede, ought to 
be eminently lights of the world, were too apt to find 
their advantage in the general ignorance of the people, 
whereby their idle tales were the more greedily believed, 
and their vices the more indulgently overlooked. Odo 
and Dunstan, archbishops in the tenth century, were 
eminent for their excessive patronage of monkish 
frauds. The latter began his career by being banished 
from the very court to which he owed his earliest pro- 
motion, in consequence of an unfortunate attempt to 



* About the year 790, two legates first came over; but it was by 
express invitation of Offa, king of the Mercians, who had a favourite 
design of erecting Litchfield, his capital city, into a rival metro- 
politan see. Mosheim, Cent. xi. p. 2. 



108 EARLY FAME OF THE IRISH CHURCH. 

pass off, as a miracle, wliat the court, witli more justice, 
regarded as a clever piece of jugglery. ' A noble woman, 
who intended to embroider some rich vestments as a 
present for the church, requested Dunstan to trace the 
pattern for her ; he hung his harp upon the wall while 
he was thus employed, and the tune and words of a 
well-known anthem were heard distinctly to proceed 
from it, although no human hand was near. The 
matron and her maidens ran out, exclaiming that Dun- 
stan was wiser than he ought to be ; ventriloquism was 
not suspected, and, as his life was not yet such as might 
entitle him to perform miracles, the premature trick 
was ascribed to magic.'* As Dunstan was the first 
who introduced the Benedictine order into England, 
which chiefly led to the enormous multiplication of 
monasteries in this country, the era is much to be 
noticed. He spared no pains, by force or by calumny, 
to get the ancient canonical clergy ejected from the 
cathedral establishments, and to replace them by the 
Benedictine orders — ' An injustice,' remarks Mosheim,f 
' which in the lapse of ages recoiled upon the intruders, 
when the spoiler stood before the door.' 

Much, however, of the general depravity of those 
times is undoubtedly to be ascribed to the ravages of the 
Danes. And this was felt in Ireland even more than 
by the sister-church. Without recapitulating from a 
former chapter the early history of Christianity in that 
country, we may say that the existence of a flourishing 
church there is amply established. Laurentius, the 
companion, and afterwards successor, of Augustine, 
addressed himself, in a document still extant, * To our 
Lords and most dear Brethren the Bishops and Abbots 



* The story is given as related in Southey's Book of the Churchy 
ch. vi. 

t Moslieim, Cent. xi. p. 2, ch. vi. 



'THE PALE.' 100 

throughout all Ireland.'* The same, though at a later 
period, was the respectful address of Gregory VII. to 
' Terdeluachus, the most illustrious king of Ireland, 
the archbishops, bishops, abbots, nobles, and all 
Christians inhabiting Ireland. 'f While these and simi- 
lar documents sufficiently attest the existence of a 
national church there, there are not wanting others, 
which equally show its independence of the popes of 
Rome. Thus St. Bernard, writing to Malachi, the first 
papal legate in that country, a.d. 1150, attests that 
hitherto the pall had never been sent to Ireland, nor 
institution given by the pope. The desired change 
was at length brought about through the following 
circumstances. 

Colonies of Danes had established themselves in the 
maritime towns of Dublin and Waterford, and also in 
Limerick. Simultaneously, the Anglo-Norman settlers, 
under Fitz- Stephen and Strongbow, were occupying 
a considerable territory around the former city, called 
' The Pale, 'J and which had been ceded to them. The 
Danes had been recently converted to Christianity by 
missionaries in connexion with Eome. The opportunity 
was too good to be lost. If Eome could succeed not 
only in attaching the Danes to their communion, but 
through them of reducing Ireland also to the same, a 
great work would be accomplished. They therefore 
induced them to choose Donagh, first bishop of Dublin, 
a.d. 1038 ; and thus, by successive steps, they began to 
set up a new hierarchy, to which, with the assistance 
of Lanfranc, and Anselm, and other Anglo-Roman pre- 
lates, they gradually found means to draw over the 



* The country was then called " Scotorum terra." See Ussher's 
Religion of the Ancient Irish, ch. X. 

t Greg. Ep. ad Tlibern. 

% Besides Dublin, the pale comprehended the counties of Lowth, 
Meath, and Eildare. 



11-0 BULL OF POPE ADRIAN. 

church in Ireland. Four palls were brought over from 
Rome by cardinal Paparo, and conferred respectively 
on the archbishops and bishops of Armagh, Dublin, 
Cashel, and Tuam, a.d. 1142. Gelasius was the first 
archbishop of Armagh who accepted this mark of 
obligation from the pope. 'A foundation was then 
laid,' observes bishop Mant, 'for the papal interference 
with the vacant Irish sees ; but it does not appear to 
have been extended further than the bestowing of the 
archiepiscopal pall till the year 1206.'* It is only fair 
to add, that the miserable state of Ireland, consequent 
on the incursion of the Danes, favoured the too easy 
admission of the English sway, and with it of the rites 
and discipline of the Eomish religion. The whole was 
consummated by the bull of pope Adrian, a.d. 1172, 
giving Ireland to king Henry II. of England. And 
thus that country, which, till the middle of the twelfth 
century, had been faithful to her own independence, at 
length conformed to the Roman obedience. 

Home was indeed rousing herself to the necessity of 
new and peculiar exertions. By the appointment of 
able men to the primacy, she first endeavoured to 
further her cause in England. Such were Lanfranc 
and Anselrn, no unworthy successors of Theodore, 1070 
and 1093 ; the former a Lombard, and the latter a 
native of Burgundy, they were both successively abbots 
of Becco and St. Stephen's at Caen, and thence were 
called to Canterbury. It was their chief policy to 
replace the secular or parochial clergy of England by 
the monastic or regular. The latter were now found 
more subservient to papal law than the former, who 
still in many parts resisted celibacy, and were in some 
other respects not the most orderly subjects of Rome. 
Complaints of the interference of Roman legates were 



* Mant's History of Church of Ireland, ch. i. 



CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON. Ill 

artfully silenced, by attaching that office in perpetuo to 
the primacy. This was first done in the time of arch- 
bishop Theobald, 1138. A more questionable means 
resorted to by the popes, was that of tampering with 
the succession to the throne. Without regard to the 
right of the case, they often procured the advancement 
of such kings as seemed most likely to favour their own 
pretensions. This was shown in the case of Stephen, 
and John, and in many other instances that might be 
named. 

Obsequious, however, as some few of the Norman 
kings might be, others of that line exhibited a far dif- 
ferent temper. William the Conqueror refused to 
abate the smallest of his rights ; — when summoned to 
do homage, 'he was in no mind,' he replied, 'to per- 
form that which none of his predecessors had done/ 
He forbad the clergy to go out of the kingdom, to 
acknowledge a pope, to excommunicate a noble, or to 
publish any letters from Eome, without the royal per- 
mission. And though, under Stephen, the popes 
gained some advantages in obtaining exemptions for 
the clergy, the carrying of appeals to Eome, and the 
appointment to bishoprics by the form of investiture, 
yet Henry II. successfully recovered the latter right, 
so far, at least, that the bishops should hold their tem- 
poralities of the king and do him homage, and in 
spirituals only be invested by the pope. 

But of all other documents, which show the spirit 
in which our ancestors had always resisted the papal 
encroachments, the Constitutions of Clarendon, and 
Magna Charta, are the chief. The former were drawn 
up by the assembled council of the nation, presided 
over by Henry II. ; the latter was extorted from king 
John, slave as he was to the authority of Eome. 

The Constitutions more especially guaranteed to 
the nation the liberty of trying ecclesiastical offences 



112 THOMAS A BECKET. 

iii the secular courts, the carrying of appeals from the 
bishop to the archbishop, and from the archbishop to 
the king, but no further without the royal pleasure ; — 
and lastly, the election of bishops by chapters, under 
the king's writ, and with fealty and homage to the 
king as supreme ; and such was the legitimate and 
canonical method of election. 



Chaptee IV. 

Becket — His quarrel with the king — Flight into France — Mediation 
of pope and attempt at reconciliation — Interview of king with 
Becket — Murder of Becket — Humiliation of the king — Grostete, 
bishop of Lincoln, 1235 — France, and Gallican independence — 
Councils of Francfort and Paris— Hincmar — Spain and the 
Moors, 711 — Knight-errantry — Compostella, and banner of St. 
Iago — Ferdinand III., 1236 — Condition of the earlier churches 
in Europe. 

The unfortunate quarrel of Becket with Henry II. 
precipitated a crisis, at which the policy of Eome had 
long been aiming. Appeals, disallowed by the law and 
custom of the land, were henceforth habitually carried 
to Home. Though not the legal, such was often the 
most convenient course; and practice began to sanction 
what the laws, and especially the Constitutions of 
Clarendon, expressly forbad. 

How the boon companion turned into the haughty 
prelate, — and how in Becket was displayed the un- 
bending determination to sacrifice all the ordinary 
feelings of humanity to the dictates of a blind zeal 
for his church, — is known to every reader of English 
history. Finding, in the touching language of his 
sovereign, ' that the realm of England was too small 
for two such spirits,' Becket's conduct soon made it 
prudent for him to flee to France, but without having 



HIS QUARREL WITH THE KING. 113 

yielded one iota of his claims. ■ Saving his order,' was 
still his watchword ; and only with this reservation 
would he comply with the very laws and customs of 
the land. In particular he insisted on the exemption 
of his order from all secular control, and the entire 
subordination of the civil to the spiritual arm ; and 
this, though the scandalous excesses of the clergy 
were everywhere the subject of complaint; and while 
redress from the temporal courts was precluded, in the 
spiritual the offenders were either not punished, or for 
the most part very leniently. In France he stirred up 
the French king to invade the king of England's do- 
minions, and otherwise disturb him in Normandy. He 
also thundered out excommunications very freely on all 
the English bishops who durst side with his master. At 
length the pope, naturally on the side of Becket and 
the French king, yet being inconvenienced by news 
from the emperor of Germany, and not knowing how 
to accommodate all interests, determined at last to 
labour for a reconciliation between Becket and the 
king of England, and to employ the mediation of the 
king of France. The kings met at Paris. Becket 
repaired there also. Henry having offered compensa- 
tion for any temporalities due to Becket during his 
absence from his see, the latter was now ushered in. 
Falling down before his sovereign, he declared his 
submission ; but there was still the old reservation, 
'■ so far forth as I may, saving the honour of Almighty 
God.' The clause was a bitter one to the king* 
' See,' he exclaimed, turning to the king of France, 
■ how he goeth about to delude me with this clause* 
Whatsoever shall displease him, he will by-and-bye 
allege to be prejudicial to the honour of the Almighty.' 
What followed would have seemed reasonable and ho- 
nourable to any but the distorted mind of the primate 

L 



114 DEATH OF BECKET. 

1 This, however,' continued the king, ' will I say to you, 
whereas there have been kings of England many be- 
fore me, whereas some were peradventure of greater 
power than I, the most part far less; and again, many 
archbishops before this man, holy and notable men ; 
look, what duty was ever performed by the greatest 
archbishop that ever was, to the weakest and simplest 
of my predecessors, let him yield me but that, and it 
shall abundantly content me.' All men cried shame 
upon Becket for not closing with these honourable 
terms of the king, but here the interview ended. 
Afterwards a kind of reconciliation was effected; Becket 
and the king, at a later interview, riding out together, 
appeared to exchange the tokens of their ancient affec- 
tion ; but all was hollow on the side of the primate. 
He went away and boasted of his triumph, and refused 
to withdraw the ecclesiastical censures which he had 
illegally issued against many of his suffragans. He 
returned, however, to England, and to the seat of his 
primacy, and was, shortly after, murdered on Inno- 
cent's-day, in the cathedral of Canterbury, in a shocking 
and unjustifiable manner. How his ashes were adored, 
and his shrine long resorted to as a place of peculiar 
sanctity by pilgrims from all parts of Europe, and how 
the king submitted, by way of penance for a crime 
in which he had no share, to be scourged by the monks 
of Canterbury, and endure other indignities, need not 
be more particularly related. This weakness of the 
king gave a triumph to the side of Becket, and en- 
tailed on the British nation, for a time, a greater state 
of subservience to Rome than ever. 

But what sort of evils flowed from the principle for 
which Becket died, of abject submission to papal su- 
premacy, we may infer from a remarkable protest of 
another English bishop, who lived near a century 
after, and could speak from experience of the conse- 



INDEPENDENCE OF EiUNCE. 115 

quences. Among the grievances alleged by Grostete,* 
bishop of Lincoln (1235), we find it declared by that 
excellent prelate, * What for appeals to Borne, and 
money there expended in bribes, no jurisdiction in 
England could punish any fault, however heinous. All 
preferments were eaten up by papal nominees ; and in 
this way 70,000 marks went out of the country by the 
year, whereas the king's yearly revenue came not to 
the third part of that sum.' Such was the testimony 
of a man whom, some years after, pope Innocent IV. 
was desirous of exhuming, and burning his bones ; but 
he is said to have been deterred by a dream from that 
barbarous way of showing his malevolence to the me- 
mory of one who was bold enough to declare the 
corruption of his church, and the necessity of a 
reformation. 

Turning from Great Britian, we observe, that in 
France also there was for some time manifested an 
equal spirit of independence against the papal en- 
croachments. The people of that country had that 
just regard to their national liberties, which for awhile 
promised better things, and to which if they had 
remained true, it might have led to a reformation as 
brilliant as the English — a reformation conducted 
within the church itself by its lawful bishops and 
rulers. An early exercise of such a spirit we had 
occasion to observe in the two Councils of Francfort 
and Paris, which condemned the papal decrees about 
the worship of images in the second council of Nice. 
Erance was always famous for the number and activity 



* This good man is thus described by a cotemporary writer and 
cardinal of Spain : ' He is for religion a catholic as well as we, but 
for life and conversation so far before us, as it is thought Christen- 
dom hath not his like. He is a most learned man, a profound 
divine and a diligent preacher. We have no just matter against 
him. We had better let alone and pass over his complaints.' 



116 spAin And st. jago. 

of her provincial councils. Thus under Charlemagne, 
there were held there, in forty-six years, thirty-five 
councils ; under Louis the Meek, twenty -nine ; under 
Charles the Bald, sixty -nine ; and in the eleventh 
century, eighty councils. Memorable, too, were the 
exertions made in the ninth century by Hincmar, 
archbishop of Eheims, and who upon the appointment 
of a papal legate, the archbishop of Sens, protested 
against it as an infraction of the national liberty. 

Spain fell an easier prey. Her early invasion by 
the Vandals, who were of the Arian party, threw her 
naturally into the hands of Rome for alliance and pro- 
tection. After this, she was occupied in defending her- 
self against the Moors. One of the earliest and strongest 
instances on record of ecclesiastical assumption took 
place in Spain, a. p. 681, when a council ventured to 
depose Wamba, king of the Visigoths, on pretence of his 
having worn the dress of a monk. The Moors in 711, 
at the battle of Xeres, got a footing in Spain, and suc- 
ceeded by degrees in driving the Christians within the 
narrow limits of the Asturias, and subjecting to their 
dominion three-fourths of the whole country. But the 
success of Charles Martel in France, 732, together 
with the increasing divisions among the Moorish king- 
doms, gave fresh courage to the Christians ; and from 
the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries they gradually 
recovered their dominions from the hand of the infidel. 
The spirit of knight-errantry became especially the 
rage among this proud and superstitious people ; and 
it was more through its influence than from the pre- 
tended efficacy of a miraculous banner of St. Jago,* 
that the tide was ultimately turned in favour of the 
Christian armies. But the shrine of that apostle, at 
Compostella, was a famous resort of pilgrims ; and 



* i.e.«— St. James. 



CHARLEMAGNE. 117 

to his tutelage, and fighting under his banner, the 
Spaniards delighted to attribute all their victories. 
Cordova, the first capital of a Moorish kingdom, and 
Seville, the richest, were retaken under Ferdinand III. 
(a.d. 1236 and 1248). This king was rewarded at his 
death by a place on the canonical list of saints. 
Gibraltar, under Ferdinand IV. (a.d. 1303), and 
Grenada, under Ferdinand and Isabella, were among 
the last possessions recovered from the Moors. 

Such was the condition of the church in the coun- 
tries of Italy, Gaul, Great Britain, and Spain, where, 
following the track of Horaan civilization, the Gospel 
Avas earliest preached, and churches first planted in 
Europe. In the next chapter, we shall pursue the 
progress of Christianity in those countries more re- 
cently converted to the faith, in the East and in the 
West. 



Chapter V. 

Newly-formed churches in the West — Charlemagne, and conversion 
of the Saxons — Extension of Christianity effected by ordinary 
means — Haraild, and conversion of Denmark, 830 — Ansgarius — 
Rollo, and conversion of Normans — Bohemia christianized, 950 
— Poland, ditto, 9G5 — Stephen, and conversion of Hungary — 
Missions of the Eastern churches, — of Methodius and Cyrillus to 
Bulgaria, 845 — Russia, and Mission of Photius, 867 — Vladimir — 
Kestorian Missions in Tartary and China — Prester John — St. 
Thomas Christians — Peter Waldo, 1180 — Yaudois — Albigenses 
— Paterini, Cathari, &c. 

Eor three centuries from the time of Charlemagne, the 
Gospel spread through Germany and the north with 
such remarkable success, that at the end of that time 
it became the universal religion of Europe. That 
emperor himself was careful to provide for the intro- 
duction of his own religion among, all the nations sub- 
ject to his sway. It is sometimes insinuated, that he 
propagated Christianity with the sword. This, how- 



118 ST. ANSGARIUS. 

ever, was by no means the case. His vocation was 
that of a king and of a conqueror. It was the part to 
which Providence had manifestly called him, to unite 
the scattered and semi-barbarous tribes of France and 
Germany into one compact kingdom. If besides this, 
he enforced Christianity upon the countries which he 
conquered, he did no more than he was bound to do for 
the common good; and it can scarcely be charged 
against him, that his conquests had the special object 
of converting the people to Christianity. Be this as it 
may, through his influence many of the Saxons were 
converted to the faith, though, in other cases, he did 
little more than prepare the way for the labours of 
missionaries who followed him in later generations. 

Now that miracles had very much ceased, we must 
not be surprised that the progress of the G-ospel was 
often left to means and influences which appear small 
and inadequate. Often it seemed to follow in the train 
of earthly conquest ; the conquerors, at one time, im- 
posing their religion upon the conquered ; at another, 
the invaders condescending to adopt that of the coun- 
tries upon which they were successfully setting their 
feet. Intermarriages of Christians with heathen, poli- 
tical alliances, and similar causes, had often the like 
effect. Thus Haraild, king of Denmark, being threat- 
ened by a neighbouring prince, and repairing for aid 
to Louis the Meek (a.d. 830), the latter insisted on the 
condition of his becoming a Christian, and being bap- 
tized. At the same time he sent back with him to Den- 
mark such teachers as might further instruct him in the 
faith. It was by the labours of Ansgarius, who shortly 
after was sent out by Lewis, that not only Denmark, 
but Sweden and the other nations of Scandinavia, were 
prevailed upon to renounce the awful horrors of a most 
base and bloody idolatry (a.d. 834 — 864). To this cele- 
brated man was assigned the first archbishopric of Ham* 
burg and Bremen, 



WESTERN MISSIONS. 119 

The fierce and piratical nation of the Normans were 
in like manner brought over to the faith of Christ. 
Hollo having invaded France, was appeased by the gift 
of the king's daughter, Gisela, in marriage, and of Nor- 
mandy as her dowry; and this circumstance introduced 
him to a nearer acquaintance with Christianity, which 
he soon after embraced, and his example was not unwil- 
lingly followed by his countrymen and subjects. 

Prom the Danes and Normans, if we pass on to 
Hungary and Bohemia, the latter received the truth 
partly from Otho, of Saxony, a.d. 950, and partly 
through missionaries from the East. A daughter of 
Boleslaus, duke of Bohemia, marrying Miceslaus (a.d. 
965), duke of Poland, the latter country was drawn 
over to the same religion. Geysa, chief of the Hun- 
garians, in like manner took his religion from his wife, 
Sarolta, the daughter of a Christian who had received 
baptism at Constantinople. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, 
came over to labour among this people, which he did 
with great success ; and soon after, the whole country 
became Christian under Stephen, son of Sarolta, a man 
as eminent for his virtues, as for being the first Chris- 
tian king of Hungary. 

The success of missions among the Eastern churches 
was no less remarkable than in the West. The ninth 
and tenth centuries were distinguished by the first 
planting of Christianity among the great Sclavonic 
tribes of Bulgaria and Eussia. The Bulgarians border- 
ing on the Eastern empire, being frequently engaged 
in war with the Greeks, a princess of that country was 
taken prisoner. The emperor had her carefully in- 
structed in the Christian religion. Upon peace being 
made, and the princess returning to Bulgaria, Cyrillus 
and Methodius, bishops in the Eastern church, were 
sent over at her request, and laboured successfully in 
the conversion of the whole people, 845. An interest- 



120 EASTERN MISSIONS. 

ing anecdote is related, " That the king, Bogaris, having 
hitherto resisted conviction, conceived a particular 
affection for Methodius, who, being a skilful painter, 
was desired by him, in the spirit of a barbarian, to com- 
pose a picture exhibiting the most horrible devices. 
Methodius took a happy advantage of this strange re- 
quest, and painted the day of judgment in a style so 
terrific, and explained its scenes to his royal master in 
language so awful and affecting, that Bogaris was 
awakened, made a profession of the true faith, and was 
baptized by the name of Michael, after the Greek 
emperor, his benefactor."* 

The celebrated Photius, patriarch of Constantinople^ 
had instituted a mission in Russia, where an arch- 
bishopric was founded atKiew, then the seat of govern- 
ment in that country, a.d. 867. In the following cen- 
tury a princess, Helena, was baptized, and her grand- 
son, Vladimir, ruled over a Christian country. The 
conversion of the latter is ascribed to his marriage with 
Anna, a sister of the Greek emperor, Basil. It was 
followed by that of his people and subjects, who have 
ever since retained connexion with the Greek church. 

To the North of China, a Tartar prince had been con- 
verted by the ISTestorian Church, with 200,000 J of his 
subjects (a.d. 900). The Nestorians laboured with re- 
markable success among many of the Tartar tribes, as 
well as over a considerable part of China. In the 
eleventh century flourished, in those parts, the famous 
Br ester John; but whether a Tartar king of that name 
became a Nestorian Christian and a presbyter (for 
pr ester was merely a corruption of this word), or 
whether a Nestorian presbyter became a Tartar king, is 



* See Montgomery's Poems : Greenland, canto i. 
t Patriarch, a.d. 850 — SS0. 
% Mosheim, Cent. x. p. 1, ch. i. 



PETER WALDO. 121 

a question not jet satisfactorily decided. He reigned 
over a nourishing kingdom, and his successors went by 
the same name, till the kingdom was overrun by Zen- 
ghis-Khan (a.d. 1196). 

The church of the St. Thomas Christians (as they 
style themselves) was another offshoot from the ISTes- 
torian branch, which still nourished in the south of 
India, when the Portuguese landed there, about the 
year 1500.*' [Romish emissaries beheld with curiosity 
and surprise a people worshipping God after the manner 
of their fathers, and adoring a common Saviour, yet 
abhorring the worship of the blessed Virgin, and caring 
nothing for popes of Rome. It was time to ply them 
with arguments, if not with arms. They did both: and 
imprisoned some of their bishops. But all was in vain. 
The honest Nestorian colony acknowledged none but 
their own patriarch at Mosul, and remained under their 
own bishops. 

A man worthy of being mentioned as a missionary 
(considering the sad state of the church in his day), 
but more strictly, perhaps, to be called a reformer, 
lived at Lyons (a.d. 1180). He was a layman and a 
merchant there, but was so struck with the abuses and 
corruptions of the church, and especially with the 
adoration which then began to be paid to the sacred 
elements in the Lord's Supper, that he determined to 
call attention to the subject. He procured translations 
of the New Testament, and with these he went every- 
where, reasoning out of the Scriptures with the people, 
and thus endeavouring to open their eyes to the super- 
stitious practices which had grown up around them. 
He might have mingled with his doctrine some erro- 
neous views, but, as even his adversaries charged 



: See Gibbon, ch. xlvii. 
M 



122 ALBIGENSES. 

nothing upon him but that he blasphemed* the Eoman 
church and the clergy, though otherwise believing 
nothing respecting God which was not good, we can 
have no hesitation in praising him for his better quali- 
ties, and for his zeal in doing good, while we may impute 
his errors to the misfortune of the times. 

Some would make it appear that Waldo was the 
founder of a sect called after him, Waldenses. It is 
more probable that he derived his patronymic from that 
people; or at least from those who, under the name of 
Vaudois, or " men of the valley," had for some time 
been congregated in the fastnesses of the Alps. They 
themselves claimed descent from the times of pope 
Silvester, when they were driven there by the Diocle- 
tian persecution. Though of this we have no proof, 
yet, says Mr. Waddington, " we have just reason to 
infer," from many considerations, " the very high anti- 
quity of the Yaudois." 

The Albigenses were a different people altogether. 
It is probable that the latter name originated with a 
council held at AIM, in Languedoc (a.d. 1176), to con- 
demn certain heretics of the Paulician sect,f who had 
lately settled in these parts. They were otherwise 
called the " Paterini," from a street of that name in 
the city of Milan, where they settled, and the Cathari 
or puritans. 

Both these, however, were often confounded care- 
lessly together, or called by the common names of 
Leonists, Henricians, JPetrobrussians,X sometimes also 
Lollards, JBeghards, &c, &c. 



* Such was the description given of Peter Waldo by a Dominican 
inquisitor. See Waddington, ch. xviii. 

t See above, part II., ch. iii. p. CO. 

% Leonists, from Peter Waldo of Lyons, then called Leona. 

Henricians and Petrobrussians, from Henri and Peter de Bruys, 
two vehement advocates of reform. 

Lollards, from lollen, to sing, was at first the name of some good 



SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 123 

But it was rather in contempt and mockery, than with 
any exact discrimination of the meaning, that these 
terms were applied to the reformers. As soon as the 
spirit of inquiry, or the desire of reforms, however just 
and reasonable, was manifested by any, he was blackened 
by the name of Paulician or Manichean, or some other 
of the heretical brood. And it is this lamentable want 
of justice and Christian charity, which in many an age 
has damaged the cause of truth. Men are often driven 
into heresy by the very imputation of it ; but ' mental 
heresies gratuitously imputed/ have been well called 
'the most wicked inventions of ecclesiastical rancour;' 
and if St. Paul did right in rejoicing that ' in every 
way, whether in pretence or of truth, Christ was 
preached/ it is no necessary mark of a true church to 
denounce as infidels and heretics all those whom, in 
the wide field of religious doctrine and practice, we sup- 
pose to think differently from ourselves. 



men at Antwerp, who gave themselves to works of charity among 
the sick, and often attended funerals, where they sung in a doleful 
chant. 

Beghard, from the German * to beg,' was at first applied to the 
more needy of the mendicant orders. In due time, both the latter 
terms were used to designate those who affected superior piety. 
From Beghard came the Latin Beguini and BeguincB, which was 
afterwards the name of a new brother and sisterhood for pious and 
charitable objects in Flanders and parts of Germany. See Soames' 
Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 542, 637. 



124 



Chapter VI. 

The Crusades — Early pilgrimages to Jerusalem — Peter of Amiens, 
1094— Sylvester II.— Gregory VII— Council of Clermont— 
Military orders— Hospitallers, Knights Templars, Teutonic 
Knights— First Crusade — Jerusalem taken from the Turks, 1099 
—Godfrey of Bouillon — St. Bernard, and Second Crusade, 1147 
— Jerusalem retaken by Saladin, 1187 — Richard Cceur de Lion, 
and Third Crusade, 1189— A Truce, 1192— Latins take Con- 
stantinople, and Fourth Crusade, 1219 — Truce of Fred. II., 1229 
—St. Louis, and Sixth Crusade, 1219-1254— Death of St. Louis, 
and Seventh Crusade, 1270 — Edward I, — Acre taken by the 
Turks, and end of Crusades, 1271 — Causes of failure — Corrupt 
state of the church. 

We come now to the Crusades, the distinguishing 
feature of nearly ttvo centuries* of ecclesiastical history. 
They took their rise, we need scarcely say, in the 
growing power of the Turks in Syria, and their oppres- 
sion of the Christians there. But it was more than 
mere sympathy for the suffering communities in the 
East, or even the fear of a new invasion in the West, 
that now animated the zeal of Europe. It had long 
been the custom in the Christian church — a custom 
borrowed more from natural instinct than from the 
dictates of revelation or apostolic precedent — to attach 
peculiar sanctity to the relics and monuments of de- 
parted saints. This was the cause of that early vene- 
ration, which we have seen paid to the tombs of the 
martyrs, and of the long and often wearisome pilgrim- 
ages which were made to them from distant parts. 

But the Holy Land was a place naturally surpassing 
all others in interest and sanctity. At Jerusalem was 
the tomb of Christ himself. Here was the scene of his 
death and passion, of his resurrection and ascension. 
Here was the cradle of the church ; the scene of the 



* From the council of Clermont, 1095, to the taking of rtolemais, 
or Acre, 1291. 



PREPARATION FOR CRUSADE. 125 

first labours of the apostles. The churcli of that city 
was early called, as in reality it was, the Mother- 
church of Christendom; and so indeed our Saviour 
made it, when he commanded that * repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in his name among 
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem* The city was 
not wanting in other associations of much interest. 
Churches of great celebrity stood upon the site of the 
Holy Sepulchre, and of the Resurrection. A hospital 
for sick pilgrims had been erected by Justinian. The 
Emperors Heraclius and Charlemagne had added 
something to the adornment of the Holy City; and 
even the terror of the Saracen arms did not prevent 
multitudes of pilgrims from still resorting to the sacred 
spots. 

It was during such a pilgrimage that Peter, a monk 
of Amiens (a.d. 1094), was struck with indignation at 
witnessing the hardships endured by his brethren, par- 
ticularly through the exaction of so heavy a tax for 
their admission within the gates, as often reduced them 
to the most abject poverty. For a time, indeed, the 
Mahometan yoke, under the successors of Omar (the 
Mussulman conqueror of Syria), had not been oppres- 
sive to the Christians of Judea. But under a change 
of masters a very different lot awaited them. Hakem 
(a.d. 1010) was the first of the sultans whose jealousy 
led him to the destruction of the church of the Holy 
Sepulchre, but on his death it was allowed to be 
rebuilt. Oppressive taxes, however, began to be levied 
upon the Christians ; and so early as a.d. 999 pope 
Sylvester II. had recommended the interference of 
Europe in their behalf. Gregory VII. was so earnestly 
impressed with the same desire, that he was willing to 
have conducted an expedition himself. But as nothing 



* Luke xxiv. xlvii. 
m2 



120 MILITARY ORDERS. 

was done, the persecution continued, and the Crescent 
was rapidly supplanting the Cross over a great part 
of the East. The disposition to aid their suffering 
brethren was already increasing, when Peter of Amiens 
took the favourable opportunity to appeal, in person, to 
all the courts and churches of Europe to which he had 
access ; and he was careful to carry with him the sanc- 
tion of the pope.^ The whole fraternity of monks, 
now very numerous both in the East and in the West, 
were the first to respond with enthusiasm to the call. 
Aided by their example, and favoured by the eloquence 
of Peter, the flame soon became universal, and at the 
council of Clermont (1095),f under Urban II , the 
decree went forth which was to arm all Europe against 
the Mahometan oppressor. 

It may be as well to mention here, that the monastic 
orders began at this time to receive an important ac- 
cession in the ' Knights Hospitallers,' the ■ Knights 
Templars,' and the ' Teutonic Knights.' A reference to 
our former notice will show, that none of these orders 
subsisted before the crusades. They were the off- 
spring of these wars ; and though there was often but 
little appearance of the monastic character about them, 
they were still associated under that name. The ori- 
ginal intention was that they should tend the sick and 
protect the pilgrims in Jerusalem, and other parts of 
Syria. But as they soon began to carry the sword in 
their defence, and in furtherance of the holy cause, 
they took the name of the Military Orders. The 
Templars wore the red-cross badge on their shoulders ; 
the Hospitallers were distinguished by a white. 

A mighty armament now began to move out of every 

* Urban II. 
t The council of Placentia was held the same year. At the latter 
are said to have been present, besides 200 bishops, nearly 4000 of 
the inferior clergy and more than 30,000 of the laity; and they were 
obliged to assemble in the open air. At Clermont the numbers were 
even greater. 



SALAD JN 127 

part of Europe on the Mahometan provinces of Asia 
and Syria. Not four years had elapsed from the first 
sounding of the note of war at the council of Clermont, 
before the armies of the Christians sat down before 
Jerusalem ; and, after forty days siege, the city was 
triumphantly taken, and the Christian sword bathed in 
the blood of the Infidel (a.d. 1099). A new kingdom 
was now founded by the conquerors ; Godfrey of 
'Bouillon was elected the first king. Shortly after- 
wards, a number of Latin bishops were thrust into 
sees formerly occupied by Greeks, while other new 
sees were erected. The crusaders had also taken An- 
tioch and JEdessa, and founded kingdoms there. Thus, 
after some serious reverses, ended the first crusade. 

The small force left with Godfrey proving gradually 
insufficient against the Infidel, another armament was 
fitted out, a.d. 1147. The celebrated St. Bernard was 
the first instigator of the .second crusade, and he so confi- 
dently predicted its success, that the utmost enthusiasm 
everywhere prevailed to join the ranks of the crusaders. 
Louis VII. of France, and Conrad III. of Germany, 
took the lead, but the expedition met with nothing but 
disaster and defeat. Antioch fell back to jNoureddin 
and the Turks, who thus became once more masters of 
the key to all Syria. Another and more fatal blow 
was inflicted on the Christian forces by the loss of the 
battle of Tiberias, a.d. 1187. Saladi?i, the Turkish 
general, was a name at which every heart began to 
tremble. The warlike monks of the Hospital and of 
the Temple had been almost annihilated in the last 
engagement ; and in a short time Jerusalem was re- 
taken by Saladin; the mosque of Omar, which had 
been converted into a church, was again desecrated by 
the introduction of Mahomedan rites, which have ever 
since been celebrated there. This total failure of the 
Christian forces was, in part, ascribed to the treachery 



128 CRUSADES III. IV. V. 

of Alexius, the Greek emperor of Constantinople, in 
defrauding them of the succours which he had promised 
for the war. However this be, a third crusade 
speedily followed, illustrious for the deeds and prow- 
ess of our English Richard, who, with Philip of 
France, were leaders on this occasion. Their arms 
were signalized by the taking of Tyre, Acre, and 
several towns along the coast, and the defeat of Sala- 
din at the battle of Ascalon; till, on nearing Jeru- 
salem, and the health of the leaders failing them, they 
consented to make terms with Saladin, by which a line 
of sea coast, the toleration of Christian worship, and the 
free admission of Christian pilgrims into Jerusalem, 
was all that was ceded to the Christians (a.d. 1192). 

A fourth crusade — undertaken partly to please the 
Venetians, who had lent their ships, and partly to 
revenge the Greek emperors for their treachery and 
apathy in the cause of the Holy Wars, — ended by a 
diversion to Constantinople, where the united armies 
placed a Latin emperor, Baldwin, count of Flanders, 
on the throne of the East (a.d. 1204). Thus commenced 
the reigns of the 'Latin emperors' of Constanti- 
nople, which lasted sixty years. The expedition had 
no other result. 

A fifth crusade was directed against Egypt — with a 
view to cripple the power of the sultans there, and 
prevent them sending aids to other parts of the East. 
Damietta was besieged and taken (a.d. 1219) ; but it 
soon fell back to the sultan. The call to this new 
crusade was so feebly answered, that little more could 
be effected. The Emperor Frederick II. was at 
length prevailed upon, by the vehement denunciations 
of Gregory IX., to show himself in Palestine. But 
instead of carrying on the war, he concluded a truce 
(a.d. 1229), by which it was agreed, ' that the Franks 
were to live freely in Jerusalem, but not to rebuild its 



CRUSADES VI. VII. 129 

walls, nor to violate the sanctity of the mosque or 
other Mahometan temples.' 

Shortly after, an incursion of new hordes of Caris- 
niian Tartars laid Jerusalem completely waste, 1244 ; 
and the Christians were exposed to the most cruel suf- 
ferings, their priests beheaded, and the holy places, 
with those who took shelter in them, defiled and treated 
with every kind of indignity. 

Five years after this calamity, in a.d. 1249, Louis IX. 
of France determined on another effort to recover 
Jerusalem. He began with the siege of Damietta, 
which he succeeded in again taking from the Turks. 
But, disease and other causes beginning shortly to 
dispirit his troops, the fortune of the day was turned, 
and the king himself fell a prisoner into the hands of 
the enemy. A large sum was, however, paid for his 
ransom, and he proceeded to Palestine. There he 
spent three years at Acre, without the power so much 
as to push on to Jerusalem. Hopeless of further suc- 
cess, he returned to France (a.d. 1254), and it is said 
that of 2,800 knights who accompanied him from 
thence, only 100 lived to return. The Latin power in 
the East declined every day ; till at length their pos- 
sessions were confined to the single city of Acre ; and 
even this was threatened by the Mameluke power 
under Bendokdar. Louis IX. again determined to 
measure his strength with the Infidel. 

A seventh and last crusade found the king of France 
again landing on the coast of Africa a.d. 1270. He 
died in his tent on the burning shore of Tunis ; leaving 
prince Edward, son of our Henry III., to finish the 
war. The future Edwarol I. rivalled in Palestine the 
valiant deeds of Richard, in the third crusade ; but the 
superior successes of Bendokdar, and the Mameluke 
armies, occasioned his return to England without 
accomplishing anything decisive. 



130 TAKING OF PTOLEMAIS, 

There remained but one conquest to the Turks, to 
make them again masters of Palestine, and this was 
accomplished (a.d. 1291) by the final capture of Acre, 
the last retreat of the Latin king, and the small rem- 
nant of his followers. 

Thus ended the celebrated wars of the Cross, after a 
struggle of nearly two centuries. If it was little to 
the credit of the Christian arms, we must remember 
that it was not from want of valour that they appear to 
have failed, but it was for want of that mutual confi- 
dence which can only be felt when there is a conscious- 
ness of right motive and disinterested feeling. But, 
unhappily, much of suspicion had long rested on the 
whole character of the wars. It had become too evi- 
dent, that the crusades were made a tool to occupy 
men's spirits, to gratify their ambition, or to lull their 
consciences. The contests for Eastern bishoprics and 
principalities among the Latins had been a crying 
scandal to the Greeks, who had long abhorred the 
Latin far worse than the Turkish rule. The popes 
tried every means to revive the zeal which had every- 
where declined : and no wonder, when we remember 
how admirably the crusades had answered their am- 
bitious purposes, and how well they had worked in 
filling the papal coffers.* The absence of kings from 
their own dominions, gave the easier opening to those 
spiritual chiefs to interfere on every convenient occa- 
sion. The motive to the wars was always ready and 
plausible. To join them was represented as at once a 
feat of valour and a proof of piety. To the sinner 
they were an act of penance ; to the saint they were 
supposed to add lustre to his holiness. But the plausi- 
bility of such arguments was soon conteracted by the 
open traffic that was made of the parties employed. 



* See Matthew Paris, p. 483, 514, 537. 



CORRUPT STATE OF CHURCH. 131 

When instead of crusading, it sufficed to pay money to 
the coffers of Rome ; when it appeared that the estates 
of the crusader reverted on his death to the same 
hands, the game was too transparent to be long kept up. 

'The indulgence,' says Mr. Waddington, 'which in 
the first instance was only granted as the reward of 
actual service in the holy cause, was, in process of 
time, publicly exchanged for gold; and the timid or 
indolent devotee was first permitted, and afterwards 
encouraged, to redeem by his wealth the toils and 
dangers of a military penance. Again, Innocent III. 
had taxed the clergy for the benefit of the Holy Land; 
but presently we find complaints, that the tax was 
become the object, instead of the means, and the 
crusade only the pretext. And thus the treasury of 
Rome was filled, amidst the disappointment of all 
honest enthusiasts, and the murmurs of a degraded 
priesthood.'* 

But besides this, it was necessary to occupy the 
spirits of men; and that in such a manner, that atten- 
tion might by all means be diverted from the moral 
condition of things within the church. That condition 
is thus described by a contemporary historian of the 
crusades — by one whom Fleury calls 'a grave and 
judicious author,' and who was therefore not likely to 
overstate the evil. ' The people were faithful only in 
name ; princes and subjects, clergy and laity, had all 
alike departed from purity of faith and morals. Sacri- 
lege and violence, gross fornications, injustice, luxury, 
and a long catalogue of other sins, betokened that the 
world was declining towards evening .... that the love 
of many had waxed cold, and faith was no more found 
in the earth. The bishops, instead of correcting the 
prevailing abuses, were grossly negligent; dumb dogs 



History of the Church, ch. xxi. 



132 ROMISH CORRUPTIONS. 

not able to bark ; accepting persons ; leaving tlie sheep 
to wolves as hirelings ; given to simony ; followers of 
Gehazi. In short, * all flesh had corrupted his way 
upon earth;' and Nature herself gave token of ap- 
proaching judgment ; for there were prodigies in heaven 
and signs upon earth ; pestilence and famine and earth- 
quakes.'* 

As no testimony can be so conclusive, as that not 
only of contemporary historians but of professed mem- 
bers of the Romish church, we shall subjoin an extract 
from a letter written by the Emperor Frederick II. to 
Henry III. of England, just as he was himself preparing 
to join the fifth crusade : ' The Roman church so 
burns with avarice, that as the ecclesiastical revenues 
do not content it, it is not ashamed to despoil sovereign 
princes, and make them tributary. You have a very 
touching example in your father, King John .... I 
speak not of the simonies, the unheard-of exaction, 
which it exercises over the clergy, the manifest or 
cloaked usuries with which it infects the whole world. 
In the meantime these insatiable leeches use honeyed 
discourses, sayiug that the court of Rome is the 
church, our mother and nurse, while it is our step- 
mother and the source of every evil. It is known by 
its fruits. It sends on every side legates with power 
to punish, to suspend, to excommunicate ; not to diffuse 
the Word of God, but to amass money, and reap that 
which they have not sown.'f 



* From William of Tyre, i. viii. p. C34, quoted in "Williams' Holy 
City, vol. i. p. 361. 

t From Waddington's Church History, cli. xx. 



3 33 



Chapter VII. 

Further decline of monastic discipline — Mendicant orders — Francis- 
cans, Dominicans — Fratricelli — Jealousy of regular and secular 
clergy — Character of centuries nine and ten — Bank and learning 
of clergy — Character of centuries eleven to fourteen — Godeschal- 
cus, and disputes on predestination, 848 — Berenger and Eucha- 
ristic controversy, 1060 — Transubstantiation — Indulgences — 
Sale of indulgences made over to Franciscans — Their supposed 
efficacy. 

It will form a convenient link between this and the 
following period, if, without entering as yet upon the 
part which they performed in the Inquisition, we just 
mention the new orders of monks, and the general con- 
dition of the whole fraternity about this time. A pre- 
valent relaxation in manners and discipline had long 
since been observable amongst them. As new orders 
arose, they for a time gave promise of better things ; 
but they were found in practice to be mostly remark- 
able as tools of the papacy, and as obstinate upholders 
of all the innovations and abuses in the church. 

They had once, indeed, subserved a higher purpose. 
In the general ignorance and turbulence of the dark 
ages, the monasteries afforded a retreat to the studious, 
and were comparatively the seats of useful learning and 
arts. The monks brought into cultivation the waste 
lands, and dispensed charity among the neighbouring 
poor. But when they exchanged manual labour for 
indolent devotion, when they thought more of their own 
ease than of useful occupation, they sunk into every 
species of vice, and became a public scandal to the 
church. Their numbers had increased with the de- 
generacy of their manners. The addition of the mendi- 
cant orders (as they were called), served only to intro- 
duce fresh abuses. The leading feature of these orders 
was their vow of strict and perpetual poverty; they 
N 



134 DIFFERENCES AMONG FRANCISCANS. 

were to live only on alms, while they moved from place 
to place. St. Francis founded the Franciscan order, 
a.d. 1210; and Dominic, about the same time, that 
which was called after his name. The Dominicans were 
further and specially licensed to be a sort of itinerant 
preachers ; in the hope that by eloquent and moving 
appeals to the people they might deter them from join- 
ing the ranks of the reformers, who now began every- 
where to abound. The Franciscans, to express their 
modesty and humility, declined the name of Fratres, 
and assumed that of Fratres Minores, sometimes called 
Minorites, and in Italian, Fratricelli. 

The extraordinary multiplication of the monastic 
orders became matter of serious complaint, especially 
as the mendicants went everywhere begging their 
bread. Gregory X., 1272, found it necessary to inter- 
fere in repressing their numbers ; and he confined the 
institution to the four denominations of Dominicans, 
Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. 

But a worse evil followed, when the monks were per- 
mitted not only to preach, but also to administer con- 
fession and the sacraments, in common with the paro- 
chial or secular clergy. It had ever been felt an evil, 
that they were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and 
owed allegiance only to their abbot and the pope. But 
now a new source of jealousy was added, and it gave 
rise to perpetual and disgraceful broils, not only between 
the regular clergy and the secular, but also among the 
various orders themselves. The Franciscans were very 
early separated into two parties. Even the generals of 
the order could not agree as to the extent to which the 
rule of the founder prescribing poverty was to be car- 
ried. Some made it absolute ; others extended it no 
further than to the actual possession of lands and other 
property, the use and tenure of them being allowed. 
Innocent IV., 1245, decided, that the holding and use 



CHARACTER OF THE AGE. 135 

of necessary things should be lawful to them, but that 
the right of property or legal ownership should be vested 
in the see of Eome. And this order was confirmed by 
subsequent popes.* But it did not give satisfaction to 
many of the brethren themselves, who began now to 
divide themselves into ' Franciscans' and ' Spirituals/ 
or * Conventual Brethren' and ' Brethren of the 
Observance,' as they were afterwards termed. The 
[ Spirituals' or ' Observants' still persisted in acting 
strictly up to their vows of poverty, and distinguished 
themselves by a shorter and rougher kind of garment. 

An age of perpetual ferment and political agitation, 
such as that from Charlemagne to the crusades, cannot 
be expected to have been favourable for the discussion of 
theological subtleties. Content to see the church on 
the side of the state, and combining with it for the pur- 
poses of order and discipline, the secular powers were 
chiefly intent on securing the good will and co-opera- 
tion of the spiritual, by heaping on them wealth and 
honours ; and the latter, very naturally valuing them- 
selves on the exclusive possession of learning and 
knowledge, were too sensible of the influence which 
these attainments gave them, to be very anxious to 
extend them to others. Thus learning and knowledge 
became limited to the few ; and even among these the 
treasures of literature, and the retreats of the studious, 
were not seldom disturbed by the barbarian invaders, 
the Dane, the Norman, or the Turk. 

The ninth and tenth centuries were accordingly ages 
of increasing darkness. The eleventh gained some 
advantage by the conversion of the Normans, who then 
became as eminently the patrons, as before they had 
been the enemies, of learning. The discovery of the 
pandects of Justinian in the following century (1157), 



* Alex. IV., Nicolas III., and Clement V. 



136 PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS. 

gave a new stimulus to the study of Roman law ; this 
again introducing the taste for a more polite and classic 
literature, leading gradually to a better age. But 
the character of the centuries preceding was already 
stamped. The ninth and tenth are best known, as 
those which witnessed the advancement of the episcopal 
and clerical orders to the highest degree of temporal 
honour and influence. It would be unjust to say, that 
the advancement was of their own seeking for mere 
selfish ends. On the contrary, as a discriminating 
writer has well observed, their eminence was at first 
attributable to their activity and their virtues, more 
than to their ambition, and perhaps to the circum- 
stances of the empire more than to either. He adds, 
that in the twelfth century, one half of the culti- 
vated soil of Europe belonged to them, and that in 
general it was rightfully acquired and beneficially 
employed. 

But the bishops and clergy were destined, in their 
turn, to be over-ridden by another authority emanating 
from their own body, and successfully, though slowly, 
reducing the whole western church under its sway. 
This was the papacy, which now rose into the ascen- 
dant ; the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries may be 
called the era of its fullest development. But the pro- 
cess was so gradual as to be almost imperceptible. 
That union of ecclesiastical provinces, each governed by 
a metropolitan or archbishop, which, in the earlier ages, 
went to form the National church in each particular 
country, was always viewed with extreme jealousy by 
the Roman bishops. And circumstances made it easy 
for them to draw towards themselves more and more of 
the power belonging to the metropolitans. For in the 
constant political changes of the times, old cities de- 
clined, as new ones rose into eminence ; and thus the 
bishops also of those cities fell, or rose, in rank and 



GODESCHALUS. 137 

estimation. This gave the popes the first opportunity 
of encroaching in the administration of other churches.^ 
At length the metropolitans grew very much crippled 
in their power ; and as they failed, the provincial synods 
or councils of the church failed also ; and, after the 
time of Charlemagne, the popes assumed the power of 
governing other churches, and that not through the 
bishops and councils of those churches, but by their 
own decrees and canons which they passed off for 
general laws of the church. The false decretalsf 
enabled them to complete the usurpation. It is earnestly 
to be hoped, that the yoke of bondage thus dexterously 
forged for the church, but every link of which, from 
beginning to end, was a mere work and contrivance of 
man, may never again be imposed with so high hand, 
or borne with so tame a submission* 

The questions of a speculative nature which were 
mooted in the present period were comparatively few. 
The most celebrated was a revival, or rather a continua- 
tion, of the controversy concerning the necessity and 
operation of Divine grace, which had first been occa- 
sioned by the heresy of Pelagius. The works of 
Augustine, his arguments with Pelagius in particular, 
had ever been a favourite study, and, at least in the 
western church, were referred to as the best authority 
on this mysterious subject. But now Godeschalcus, a 
native of Germany, and monk in the diocese of Sois- 
sons, through an extreme addiction to abstruse medita- 



* See Guizot, Histoire de Civilization, ch. xiii. The chief pre- 
rogatives of the metropolitan or archbishop, were (1) the convening 
of provincial synods ; (2) the consecration of bishops ; (3) the giving 
judgment in appeal from other bishops in the province ; (4) the 
institution or confirmation of bishops to the sees to which they were 
canonically elected. By the suppression of the metropolitans, and 
gradual assumption of their office, all these prerogatives were handed 
over to the popes. 

t See above, p. 2, ch. "Hi; 

n2 



138 BERENGER AND TKANSUBSTANTIATION. 

tions, plunged anew into endless and unprofitable dis- 
cussions about election and reprobation. A council was 
called at Mayence (848), by Babanus, the archbishop, 
to examine the questions in dispute. Hincmar took 
also a very prominent part in the controversy; but 
though censures and even excommunications passed 
against GodescJialcus, and many pens were employed, 
and many councils consulted together, yet nothing deci- 
sive was concluded. The uncertainty in which so in- 
comprehensible a subject must always be left, will not be 
without its use, if it teaches us to exercise more charity 
towards one another, and to be more conscious of the 
weakness and fallibility of man's finite understanding. 

The controversy on the subject of the Eucharist, 
which arose about the same time, in century nine, we 
have before had occasion to notice. After sleeping 
through the next age, — a century of torpor and stupe- 
faction, — it broke out again in France, and acquired 
fresh celebrity through the powerful pen of JBerenger, 
a learned and able divine of Tours, and afterwards arch- 
deacon of Angers, 1045. It is difficult to ascertain pre- 
cisely what were the exact opinions of Berenger regard- 
ing the mode of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. It 
is certain, that he retracted more than once what he 
had written ; but this might have been from fear of his 
superiors, and from mere human infirmity; it is equally 
certain, that he could never receive the extreme doctrine 
of transubstantiation (as it has since been called). He 
was condemned by several councils, and under several 
popes (1050 — 1068). But, if Berenger wavered, we 
have here an instance that the popes could waver too ; 
for, after being treated as a decided heretic under pope 
Leo IX., and his three successors, he was regarded with 
even friendship by Gregory VII., who desired to mate- 
rially alter and amend the language employed by the 
last council (1079), in which the opinions of Berenger 



END OF BERENGER. 139 

Lad been condemned. The council had spoken of ' the 
bread and wine by the prayer of consecration being 
changed in their substance into the real and proper flesh 
and blood of Jesus Christ;' and another council, of 
t the sacred body being really and truly handled by 
the hands of the priests, broken and masticated by the 
teeth of the faithful.' It is well ascertained, that 
Gregory, as well as Berenger, were in favour of very 
essentially modifying these carnal and material expres- 
sions and ideas. He concurred in thinking that no vain 
curiosity should be indulged in describing the presence, 
but that the plain expressions of Scripture should be 
adhered to, and be taken for a sufficient exposition of 
the doctrine. It is abundantly clear from the whole 
controversy, that up to that time the Eoman church 
itself had abstained from dogmatizing too boldly on the 
subj ect. Unfortunately she was now tempted to exceed 
the bounds of her former prudence and moderation, by 
at length laying down at the council of Placentia 
(1095), and in opposition to all the followers of Berenger, 
a doctrine amounting to nothing short of transubstan* 
tiation, though the word itself was not adopted till a 
later council.* It may be presumed, as the only account 
to be given of this perversion, that the minds of the 
clergy became gradually intoxicated by the pleasing 
(but as it seems to us profane) idea of being able to 
create, as it were, the Divinity by a word ! 

Berenger, forbidden the exercise of his ministry in 
France, spent the remainder of his life in retirement in 
the isle of St. Cosmo, near Tours ; and died peaceably 
(a.d. 1088) with a reputation for piety, which long 
caused his memory to be held in peculiar veneration. 

The same depravation of Scriptural doctrine was 
about to show itself in another instance. It was to the 



* The 4th council of Lateran, 1215, under Innocent III. 



140 INDULGENCES, 

occasion of the crusades that we may refer that awful 
abuse — the doctrine of Indulgences. Already, in the 
eighth century, there appeared a propensity to accept, 
as in lieu of prescribed penance, the devoting of lands 
or other property to the church. A crusade was now 
accepted as a similar compensation for sin; or this 
again might be commuted for money — a prostitution of 
the offices of religion, which we can scarcely contem- 
plate without horror and astonishment. The sale of 
the indulgences was yet further encouraged by the 
entrusting it to the mendicant and needy order of the 
Franciscans, who, having abjured all fixed property 
of their own, were considered to have the best title to 
live and fatten on the proceeds of these wicked sources 
of gain. 

To what utter misconceptions of the Divine character 
and attributes, and to what fatal mistakes as to the 
nature of sin and of our duty to God, this shameful 
traffic must have led, it is painful to think. The deluded 
sinner was taught to believe, that if he purchased an 
indulgence, or gained it by going on a crusade, not only 
were all his present sins forgiven him, and himself 
restored to the purity of his baptismal hour, but that 
the virtue of such pardon extended also to the latest 
hour of his life ! As an incontestable proof of this asser- 
tion, we will here subjoin a translation of the form of 
Indulgences afterwards circulated by Tetzel, with Mr. 
Waddington's commentary on it : — 

' May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, 
and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. 
And I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles 
Peter and Paul, and of the most holy see, granted and 
committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, 
from all ecclesiastical censures in whatever manner they 
have been incurred ; and then, from all thy sins, trans- 
gressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may 



INDULGENCES. 141 

be, even from such as are reserved for the cognisance 
of the apostolic see. And as far as the keys of the 
church extend, I remit to you all punishment which 
you deserve in purgatory on their account; and I 
restore you to the holy sacraments of the church, to 
the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and 
purity which you possessed at baptism ; so that if you 
should die now, the gates of punishment shall be shut, 
and the gates of the paradise of delights shall be 
opened. And if you shall not die at present, this grace 
shall remain in full force when you are on the point of 
death. In the nameof the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost.' ' 

' This indulgence,' remarks Mr. "Waddington, ' in 
spite of the ambiguity of one or two expressions, is 
nothing less, when fairly interpreted, than an uncon- 
ditional permission to sin for the rest of life ; and as 
such it was assuredly received by those classes of the 
people for which it was chiefly intended, and whose 
morality is peculiarly confided to the superintendence 
of the clergy.'* 

* Waddington's History of the Cliurch, ch. xxviii. 



142 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE .—CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS 
SUCCESSORS. 

A.D. 800 A.D. 1273. 



Line of the Franks. 

Charlemagne 800 

Lewis 814 

Lothaire 840 

Lewis II 856 

Charles the Bald . . . . 876 

Lewis III., or Stammerer . 878 

Charles the Fat .... 880 

Arnulph 888 

Lewis IY 900 

Conrad I., of Franconia . 912 

German, or Saxon Line. 

Henry, the Fowler . . . 920 

Otho L, or the Great . . 937 

OthoII 973 

Otho III 984 



Henry II., of Bavaria . . 1002 
Conrad the Salic, of Fran- 
conia 1024 

Henry III. ..... 1039 

Henry IV 1056 

Henry V 1106 

Lothaire II 1125 

Conrad III., of Suevia . . 1138 

HOHENSTAUFEN LlNE. 

Frederick L, or Barbarossa 1152 

Henry VI 1191 

Philip, 1198, and Otho IV., 
1208, contest the Empire 1198 

Frederic II 1212 

Conrad IV 1251 

Interregnum, 1252 to . . 1273 
Rudolf 1273 



143 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ROMAN POPES. 
Continued from Part II. 

A.D. S06 A.D. 1294. 



Stephen V 816 

Paschal 1 819 

EugeniusII 824 

Valentine 827 

Gregory IY 827 

Sergius II 844 

Leo IV* 847 

Benedict III. . . . . . 855 

Nicolas 1 858 

Adrian II 867 

John VIII 872 

Martin II. ...... 882 

Adrian III 884 

Stephen VI 885 

Formosus 891 

Boniface VI 897 

Stephen VII 897 

Romanus 900 

Theodore II 901 

John IX 901 

Benedict IV 905 

LeoV 907 

Christophorus 907 

Sergius III 908 

Anastasius III 910 

Lando 912 

JohnX 913 

Leo VI 928 

Stephen VIII 929 

John XI 931 

Leo VII 936 

Stephen IX 939 

Martin III 943 

Agapetus II 946 

John XII 955 

Benedict V 964 

Leo VIII 964 

John XIII 965 

Donus II 972 



Benedict VI 972 

Boniface VII 974 

Benedict VII 975 

John XIV 984 

John XV 985 

John XVI 996 

Gregory V 996 

John XVII 996 

Silvester II 999 

John XVIII 1003 

John XIX 1003 

Sergius IV 1009 

Benedict VIII 1012 

John XX 1024 

Benedict IX 1033 

Silvester III 1045 

Gregory VI 1045 

Clement II 1046 

Damasus II 1048 

Leo IX 1049 

Victor II. 1054 

Stephen X 1057 

Benedict X 1058 

Nicolas II. ..... 1059 

Alexander II 1061 

Gregory VII 1078 

Victor III 1086 

Urban II 1088 

Paschal II 1099 

Gelasius II ins 

Callixtus II 1119 

Honorius II 1124 

Innocent II 1]30 

Celestine II 1143 

Lucius II 1144 

Eugenius III 1145 

Anastasius IV 1153 

Adrian IV 1154 

Alexander III 1159 



* After Leo IV., in the medieval chronologists, we find pope 
Joan, a. female pope. See above, part III., ch. i., p. 94. 



144 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE— con tinned. 



Lucius III 1181 

Urban III 1185 

Gregory VIII 1187 

Clement III 1188 

Celestine III 1191 

Innocent III 119S 

Honorius III 1216 

Gregory IX 1227 

Celestine IV 1241 

Innocent IV 1245 

Alexander IV 1254 

Urban IV 1261 



Clement IV 1265 

Gregory X 1271 

Innocent V 1276 

Adrian V. . . , . . . 1276 

John XXI 1276 

Nicolas III. 1277 

Martin IV 12S1 

Honorius IV 1285 

Nicolas IV 1287 

Celestine V 1294 

Boniface VIII. . . . - . 1294 



PERSECUTION OF VAUDOIS, 145 



PAET IV. 

FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF THE 
EASTERN EMPIRE. 



A.D. 1291 A.D. 1453. 



WITH CONTINUATION TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



Chaptee I. 

Crusade against the Albigenses and Vaudois — Raymond, Count of 
Thoulouse — Two Legates, Ranier and Peter de Castelnau, sent 
by Innocent III. to try the infected provinces, 1204 — Preaching 
of Dominic, 1206 — Philippe Auguste, and appeal to the sword — 
Simon de Montford — His death, 12 IS — Council of Thoulouse, 
and first board of Inquisitors, 1229 — The office transferred to the 
Dominican orders (1223) by Gregory IX. — Cruelties of the In- 
quisition — Death of last Count of Thoulouse, 1249 — Institution 
of Jubilee (1300) by Boniface VIII.— Repetition of, ordered 
every fifty years by Clement VI. — Subsequent repetitions of 
Jubilee. 

rPHE discomfiture of the Christian cause in Palestine 
-*■ was not the only thing which tarnished the depart- 
ing memory of the Crusades. Their very name was pro- 
faned by its being applied to a series of persecutions 
carried on in Piedmont, Provence, and Languedoc 
against certain inhabitants of those countries who ven- 
tured to raise the standard of reform. In other places, 
it is true, there was the same cry. The signs of dis- 
content were general and universal; but here it was 
that the Reformers appeared in the greatest numbers, 
and with the most open front. The chief were the 
Albigenses, and Vaudois. The origin of these remark- 
able people has been commonly referred to Peter 
"Waldo, the merchant of Lyons; but, besides that, 
o 



146 THE INQUISITION. 

that excellent individual had no thought of giving his 
name to a sect, it is now admitted that the new 
opinions might easily be traced to much more ancient 
and venerable sources ; for it was in the same parts 
that Claude of Turin, Yigilantius and others, had left 
the benefit of their example. The usual proceeding 
was to group them all under the odious name of Pau- 
licians and Manichees ; and it was determined to hunt 
them down like beasts of prey, and to hurry them before 
the tribunals of the Inquisition. 

Raymond the Vlth, Count of Toulouse, and nephew 
by his mother to Louis VII. of France, became early at- 
tached to the side of the reformers. The bishops also in 
those parts appearing lax in their discipline and remiss in 
bringing the dissentients to account, pope Innocent III. 
despatched two legates from the Roman court, with 
power to reprove the bishops, and bring the refractory 
not so much to trial, as to summary punishment. The 
first inquisitors (in this sense of the word) were two 
Cistercian monks, Ranier and Peter de Castelnau, 1204. 
Judicial powers for the trying of heretics were not yet 
included in the office of inquisitor. These, in 1206, 
were joined by Dominic, the celebrated Spaniard, and 
founder of the order which bears his name. By per- 
suasion, or by force, they endeavoured to repress the 
rising opinions; and the itinerant preachers spared 
neither the threats of temporal, nor of eternal fire. 
Nor was the pope remiss in seconding their labours. 
In 1207, he stirred up the French king, Philip Auguste, 
to enter the infected provinces with an armed force ; 
and, under the conduct of Simon de Montford, earl of 
Leicester, large forces were poured into Languedoc ; 
the estates of the count of Thoulouse were declared 
confiscated, and were actually made over by papal 
ordinance to the English commander; but these 
violent measures met with a spirited resistance ; De 



THE DOMINICANS TAKE THE LEAD. 147 

Montford fell in battle before the walls of Thoulouse, 
1218. 

Meantime the IVth Lateran council (1215,) had 
armed the invaders with the express sanction of the 
church ; and new powers were given to the inquisition, 
which was established in every chief city. By another 
council at Thoulouse (1229) a board of inquisitors was 
to be established in all the cities of the South, consist- 
ing of one priest and three laymen in each. But as this 
was found too liberal in its constitution, pope Gre- 
gory IX. (1233,) transferred the office to the hands of the 
Dominican orders. Soon after, the Dominican prior, 
in Paris, was appointed inquisitor-general; and the 
inquisition spread through all the country of France. 
They had now the additional powers to try the heretics, 
and to decide upon the cases heretofore carried before 
the lawful tribunal of the bishops. But it signified little 
to the popes, that the ordinary tribunals were super- 
seded ; the Dominicans were likely to do them better 
service, and therefore the rules of order and justice 
were set aside as of minor importance. Thoulouse 
was itself converted into the head-quarters of this 
army of inquisitors, who yet, in many instances, did 
not escape the vengeance of a people beyond measure 
infuriated by their excesses and cruelties. Peter, the 
first inquisitor, fell a victim to the popular fury in the 
second year of his mission ; and Conrad of Marpurg, 
the chief and most active of their body, was seized by 
a handful of noblemen and put to death. The cruelties 
inflicted on the heretics real or supposed, are described 
as most revolting. Often on mere suspicion, and with- 
out examination, the offender was summarily hurried 
to prison or the stake. If a trial was allowed him, and 
his answers did not satisfy the judges, the usual course 
was to put him to torture, either by racking the limbs, 
or exposing them to fire ; and when by these means he 



148 THE JUBILEE, 

was induced to criminate himself, he was delivered over 
to the civil authorities to be punished to the full amount 
of his imputed crimes. JNor did it concern them, that 
the innocent often suffered with the guilty ; they even 
represented it a3 an act of charity, and as tending to 
promote the salvation of many by sending some to their 
account at once, and a few prematurely to Paradise ! 
The counts of Thoulouse were not always constant to 
the side which they had espoused; but the Vllth count, 
after continually renewing the war, was pressed to a 
peace, by the hard conditions of which he was forced 
to cede the greatest part of his territories to the king, 
and another portion to the court of Rome. At last, 
broken down by a series of afflictions and losses, he 
died without issue (1249), the last of a once powerful 
line of princes. 

As the Crusades gave their name to the wars of the 
inquisition, so, considered as a source of profit to the 
papal exchequer, they were succeeded and replaced by 
the institution of the Jubilee. This was the expedient 
of Boniface VIII., partly to gratify the Roman people ; 
partly, and obviously, as a source of revenue to himself, 
but ostensibly for the comfort of souls who felt the 
burden of their sins, and sighed for the means of their 
perfect absolution. As the Jews had an appointed 
year of liberty and redemption to the captive, once in 
every fifty years, it occurred to this pontiff, that a 
similar benefit might be profitably extended, once in 
every century, to the Christian church ; and, accord- 
ingly, he decreed that whoever, in the year 1300, should 
come up to Eome to perform certain rites of religion, 
should receive the same plenary indulgence which had 
hitherto been attached to the service of a crusader. 
Whether the idea originated with Boniface, or was sug- 
gested to him by the advisers of his court, or whether 
he really persuaded himself that it was based upon an 



AND ABUSES CONSEQUENT. 149 

ancient custom of the church, it is impossible to say. 
But so popular was the scheme, that, in the year 1300, 
we read that upwards of 2,000,000 of pilgrims flocked 
to the ancient capital. When another fifty years came 
round, it naturally suggested itself to another pope, that 
the term of fifty years was better suited to the occasion 
than that of a hundred; and, under Clement YL, a 
second jubilee was observed in 1350. By similar 
reasonings, the term became afterwards reduced to a 
period of thirty-three years ; and under Nicolas Y. to 
twenty-five ; the former being taken from the lifetime 
of our Saviour, and the latter because it was considered 
the more exact and reasonable subdivision of the cen- 
tury, while the practice was so profitable that it could 
not be too often repeated !* ' By the institution of the 
jubilee,' remarks Mr. Waddington, in comparing it with 
the crusades, 'the place of pilgrimage was skilfully 
changed from Jerusalem to Home ; and the tombs of 
the apostles supplied, in the popular infatuation, the 
cross and the sepulchre of the Saviour. A consoling 
compensation was thus made both to the avarice of the 
Yatican and the superstitions of the people ; and the 
indulgence was not abandoned, nor its venality at all 
restrained, until the insulted sense and piety of man- 
kind at length revolted against the enormous abuse.' 



* At the same time, the Centenary Jubilee, otherwise called thd 
secular, every hundred years, was not discontinued. 



6i 



150 



Chapter II. 

Eastern churches, indisposed to the crusades — They repudiate 
papal supremacy — Claim of Innocent III. to have effected the 
reunion of the churches in the fourth crusade — Subsequent 
efforts to reduce them to the Roman obedience — Their failure — 
Michael Paloeologus — Cerularius — Disgust of Latin dominion in 
other parts of the East— Discontent rising also in the West — 
Louis IX., and Pragmatic Sanction, 1269— Contents of Prag- 
matic Sanction — Philip the Fair, and Boniface VIII. — The 
Bulls Clericis Laicos, and Unam Sanctam — Appeal to General 
Council — Death of Boniface — English Parliament under Ed- 
ward III. refuses Papal demands, 1365 — Statutes of Provisors and 
Premunire, 1350 — Papal collectors threatened, 1376— Sicilian 
Vespers, 1282. 

The eastern portions of Christendom, excepting so 
far as they came locally in contact with the infidel, 
took little or no part in the crusades. Indeed, the 
apathy of the church of Constantinople, and the 
treachery of the eastern emperors, in consenting to 
engagements which in times of less alarm they did not 
scruple to violate, in a great measure led to the extra- 
ordinary termination of the fourth crusade, when a 
Latin emperor was placed on the throne of Constanti- 
nople, and the Latins remained masters of the city and 
empire for sixty years. During all that time, however, 
the rites of the Greek religion were not intermitted, 
nor the succession of bishops broken. The retirement 
of the patriarch to Mce, which was now for a time 
constituted a sort of metropolitan seat, and the com* 
mencement of a line of Latin patriarchs (who have ever 
since kept up the title though not the jurisdiction) were 
the chief results that followed upon this sudden change 
of affairs. 

Hitherto the political, as well as physical, separation 
of the countries had given to the Greek, in common 
with the other eastern churches, no small advantage in 
coming to a cool and dispassionate opinion as to the 



INDEPENDENCE OF EASTERNS. 151 

claims of papal supremacy, in which, the West had very 
generally though slowly acquiesced. Eut we find that 
neither the claims alleged, nor all the arts employed by 
the Eoman church, had any effect in moving the sister 
communions from their primitive constitution. They 
were of no mind to sacrifice their ancient independence, 
nor to join in infringing the just liberties of the church 
of Christ. For their steadfast adherence to these prin- 
ciples they deserve the thanks of posterity ; and their 
example adds weight to the protest of more modem 
times and of more strictly protestant communities. 

On the side of the popes, the East was not abandoned 
without a struggle. The result of the fourth crusade 
was even claimed by pope Innocent III. as a successful 
reunion of the Greek and Latin churches. A mission, 
1234, under Gregory IX., and another conducted by 
John of Parma, general of the Franciscan order, under 
Innocent TV. (1249), again boasted of some success. 
Still later, a deputation of eastern bishops attended the 
council of Lyons (1274), to discuss the form of con- 
fession drawn up by Clement TV. An article in the 
Creed regarding the manner of the procession of the 
Holy Ghost, Transubstantiation, and the Papal Su- 
premacy were now the points most strongly contro- 
verted between the churches. Michael Palceologus 
was emperor, and tendered a nominal submission to the 
pope. But the truce was hollow. Wq sooner had the 
alarm of a new crusade (which might possibly have 
been again diverted against the Eastern empire) sub- 
sided, than the Greek submission proved to have been 
extorted by intimidation ; and Andronicus, the succeed- 
ing emperor, formally dissolved the pretended union. 
£[ ot less unfortunate was the result of the Latin domi- 
nion in Jerusalem, and the remoter parts of the East. 
The yoke of the Latins proved more intolerable to 
them than that of the Turks ; and the churches were 



J52 COUNCIL OF VIENNE. 

better satisfied with, the measure of toleration accorded 
to them by the latter, than to be exposed to the haughty 
commands and perpetual encroachments of Home. 
c The foundation of the kingdom of Jerusalem,' observes 
Mr. Waddington,* 'gave to the Latins a substantial 
footing in the East, and seemed to open the gates of 
concord. In a close alliance against the common enemy 
of the Christian name, there was hope that the less 
perceptible differences amongst Christians would alto- 
gether vanish and be forgotten. The harmony of so 
many sects and tongues, united in adoration of the 
same Saviour at his birth-place and round his tomb, 
might have afforded a spectacle of charity and a prospect 
of peace. If any circumstance of place or association, 
any reverence of sacred monuments, any brotherhood 
in holy enterprise, could have quenched the fire of 
sectarian animosities, we might have expected that 
blessing from the occupation of Palestine, and the 

redemption of the sepulchre of Christ What was 

really the result? The very circumstances which 
should have produced religious unanimity, seem to 
have had no other effect than to multiply the sources 
of discord, to exasperate its nature, and to aggravate 
its shame.' 

Even in the "West the progress of corruption had 
already excited no small discontent. But the attempts 
at reform had, as yet, reached no further than to the 
externals of religion, — to questions affecting the disci- 
pline and practical regulation of the church* The 
council of Vienneft at the beginning of our present 
period, and the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, 



* The distinction between the Greek and Latin churches will be 
found very copiously and very clearly handled by Mr. Waddington 
in ch. xxvi. of his history. The above quotation is from that 
chapter. 

t Council of Vienne, 1311; Pisa, 1409; Constance, 1414; Basle, 
1431. 



PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 153 

at the end of it, so far from contemplating anything 
beyond this, aimed rather at the suppression of any 
further movement. But a new era was beginning to 
dawn, and the labours of Wicliff, a countryman of our 
own, betokened at no great distance the advent of some 
deeper change, which should go to the root of the evil, 
and restore the faith itself to its apostolical integrity. 
Among other signs that (notwithstanding the fires of 
the inquisition and the tone, every day higher, of the 
Innocents and of a Boniface) the power of the papacy 
was already on the decline, we may point to the state 
of affairs about this time in France and England. The 
temporal power, so long outraged by the spiritual, was 
in those countries provoked to retaliation, or at least to 
its own defence. Their kings rose up for their rights. 
JNor could the opposition, in France at least, be 
suspected as coming from a quarter disaffected to reli- 
gion. It was Louis IX., the most devoted son of the 
church, who appealed to his parliament to abrogate 
the exemptions of the clergy, and, whereas they had 
long revelled in boasted freedom from all secular juris- 
diction, and laughed at all laws but those which 
emanated from the pope, this excellent and patriotic 
king procured the passing of the ' Pragmatic Sanction'* 
(as it was called) ; it was his last measure, before he 
set out upon the crusade, in which he died. It came 
to be regarded as the great charter of the French 
liberties; and as such it was frequently renewed in 
subsequent reigns, and gradually incorporated into the 
national laws. It was chiefly directed against the 
exorbitant demands of the church of Home, in claiming 
annates, or reservations, and a thousand other taxes and 
contributions which went to swell the papal revenues :f 



* A.D. 1269. 
t Annates, or first- fruits, were the proceeds of one year payable on 



154 PHILIPPE LE BEL. 

it restored the right of episcopal election to the chapters 
in whom it canonically resided ; it forbad the operation 
of the canon law, except so far as it had received the 
sanction of national councils : it gave a due measure of 
authority to the secular over the ecclesiastical courts ; 
and it protected the French church, in general, from the 
intrusions and exactions of Rome. One clause in the 
ordinance is worthy of attention, as it furnishes a kind 
of undersigned testimony to the general feeling of the 
day in regard to the papal authority ; for in that clause 
we find the expression, the i Court of Eome ;' and we 
may infer, that the church of that city had become so 
thoroughly secularized, by a long course of worldly 
ambition, that it presented the aspect of some secular 
monarchy more than that of a spiritual ; the words are, 
* We prohibit any one from in any manner levying and 
collecting the pecuniary exactions and heavy charges, 
which the court of 'Rome has imposed, or may here- 
after impose, upon the church of our kingdom, and by 
which it has been miserably impoverished — unless it 
be for a reasonable and very urgent cause, or by 
inevitable necessity, and with the free and express 
consent of the king and of the church.* 

Philip the Pair, grandson of St. Louis, openly entered 
the field against the pope. A tax had been levied for 
state purposes in France, which affected clergy as well 
as people : upon which pope Boniface VIIL, feeling 
his own interests touched, thundered out a most vehe- 
ment and intemperate threat* of excommunication, 
against whoever should venture to tax the estates or 

appointment to a benefice. The popes, from the time of Inno- 
cent III., had gradually appropriated these. 

Reservation was the promise of appointment to the first vacancy of 
a benefice whenever it might fall. 

Provision (another source of emolument to the popes) was the 
actual appointment to the benefice. 

* Known as the Bull Clericis Laicos. 



BULL OF BONIFACE VIII. 155 

property of the clergy. Philip, conceiving it indirectly 
aimed against himself, burned the bull, and summoned 
his parliament, which caused the pope for awhile to 
moderate his language. But so odious had the over- 
bearing conduct of the Homish ecclesiastics become, 
that the French church historian, himself, puts this 
complaint into the mouth of that body. 5 * ' The laity 
absolutely fly from our society, and repel us from their 
conferences and councils, as if we were guilty of 
treason against them. They despise ecclesiastic cen- 
sures, from whatever quarter they may come, and are 
preparing and taking precautions to render them 
useless.' Still the pope wenb on, adding fuel to the 
flame, and by a succession of bulls of the same violent 
and inflammatory character, he procured himself the 
name of the most insolent and imperious of the pontiffs. 
The bull, especially, which bears the name of the 
unam sanctam, is famous among the decretals of that 
pope : in it he speaks of ' two swords' being in the 
hands of St. Peter and his successors— the one to be 
wielded by the church, the other by the temporal 
power at the will and bidding of the church : for ' that 
one of these must necessarily be subject to the other;' 
and that the sword in the hands of the pope is ' subject 
to no other judgment or authority than that of God 
alone. 5 ' Finally,' it is added, in that memorable docu- 
ment, 'we declare, define, and pronounce, that it is 
absolutely essential to the salvation of every human 
being, that he be subject unto the Eoman pontiff 'f 

* Fleury. Hist. Eccl. liy. xc. § 9. 
t Porro subesse Romano Pontifici omnem humanam creaturam, 
declaramus, dicimus, definimus, et pronunciamus omnino esse de 
necessitate salutis. The terms of this Bull were in part recalled by 
Clement V., 1305 : but he refused to condemn the memory of Boni- 
face, to gratify the French king, his ally ; and Pius II. quite equalled 
the pretensions of Boniface when he said, ■ None who had dis- 
regarded the authority of the Roman pontiff could at any time enter 
the kingdom of heaven.' 



156 ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 

The king desired, but ineffectually, to bring the 
matter before the bearing of a general council, as in 
older and better times. There were not, indeed, now 
the means, or the spirit, to carry out this intent. But 
the very proposition served to prepare and open the 
minds of men for the bolder attacks which were in 
store against the papacy in the next generation. Boni- 
face died through a fit of passion, brought on by (it 
must be confessed) an outrageous attack on his person 
in the attempt to arrest and take him prisoner to 
France, by William de Nogaret, and certain other 
noblemen of that country. Such an attack upon the 
person of a pope, showed, at least, that the old spirit 
of abject veneration for the pretended successors of 
St. Peter, was beginning to wear out. 

In England, the reigns of the first JEdtuards were 
equally adverse to the unbounded encroachments of the 
court of Bome. Those monarchs trod worthily, in this 
respect, in the steps of their ancestors. In proof of this, 
the odious tribute of 1000 marks, first paid by John, 
had during thirty-three years been not so much as de- 
manded ; and in 1365, when the demand was renewed, 
this was the spirited answer of parliament, — ' Foras- 
much as neither king John, nor any other king, could 
bring this realm and kingdom in such thraldom and 
subjection, but by common consent of parliament, the 
which was not done, therefore that which he did was 
against his oath at his coronation. If, therefore, the 
pope should attempt anything against the king, by pro- 
cess, or other matters in deed, the king, with all his 
subjects, should with all their force and power resist the 
same.' 

i The celebrated Statute of Provisors (1350) declared 
any presentation to a living or benefice null or void, 
which was made by assumption of the pope, contrary to 
the custom of the realm. And in the same year was 



SICILIAN VESPERS. 157 

passed the equally stringent Act of Premunire, forbid- 
ding, under forfeiture of goods and pain of outlawry, 
the introduction or circulation of bulls or mandates of 
the pope, prejudicial to king or people ; and forbidding 
all appeals on questions of property from the English 
tribunals to the court of Eome. In 1376, the parlia- 
ment presented a remonstrance to the crown, complain- 
ing that benefices were given away to aliens and 
favourites of the pope, and praying that no papal col- 
lector should remain in England on pain of life and 
limb, and that no Englishman, on the like pain, should 
become such collector or remain at Home. 

It had, in fact, been the law of England from the 
first, that the canons and decrees of the church of 
Home were of no force in this country, as we find it 
expressly asserted in a statute* of Henry III. ; and this 
continued to be the basis of the laws of the realm till 
Henry VIII. But under Henry IV., and in some sub- 
sequent reigns, the spirit of these statutes slumbered ; 
and what made it the more disgraceful was, that then, 
notoriously, the church of Eome was verging to its 
dotage and decrepitude ; nothing but weakness or false 
expediency could have led to those papistical statutes, 
which then, for awhile, disgraced this country .f 

A scene in Sicily may fitly end this tale of the resent- 
ments excited by Homish intrusion . Eearing the grow- 
ing power of Manfred, the crown of that country had 
been taken away by Clement I V.J from its lawful 



* Statute of Merton, 20 H. III. cap. 9, 1236. 

f Particularly the Statute of H. IV. de heretico comburendo. 
And an act of convocation under a bishop Arundel, 1408. That 
whoever without authority should read the Scriptures in the mother 
tongue, should suffer punishment as an heretic. It appears that, in 
consequence of Arundel's act, several persons were burnt, on refusing 
to abjure their principles, for having read the New Testament and 
the Ten Commandments in Wickliffe's translation, Hist, et Antiq. 
Oxon. lib. ii. 

X Negotiations for this purpose had been already opened by Urban 
IV. 



158 EDUCATION AND LITERATUEE. 

owner, and, with very little scruples as to the rights of 
succession, conferred on Charles, of Anjou, brother of 
St. Louis. The monstrous cruelties and scandalous 
conduct of the French people, who now crowded into 
that country with the new king, provoked at length the 
desperate act of retaliation, known by the name of the 
Sicilian Vespers; when, on one Easter Eve (1282), the 
inhabitants of Palermo rose against the French, and put 
them all to the sword. This has been regarded as the 
most signal instance of a nation's vengeance against a 
foreign usurper ; it is little to the credit of the popes 
that that usurpation was abetted by them. 



Chapter III. 

Influence of learning on religion — Learning still confined to the 
clergy — The Trivium and Quadrivium — Pandects of Justinian, 
1137 — Gratian's collection of canon law — Aristotle, and scho- 
lastic method — Abelard — Peter Lombard, and the Sentences, 
1150 — Aquinas, and the Sum of Divinity, 1274 — Duns Scotus, 
1 2 90 — Franciscans and Dominicans — Aquinas called the ' Angelic 
Doctor ;' Bonaventura the ' Seraphic Doctor,' &c. — General 
ignorance of the monks— • Biblical doctors held in disrepute — 
Eoger Bacon — Medical school of Salerno— Universities of Paris 
and Bologna— Cimabue, and painting — Architecture — General 
ignorance of Scriptures — Fitz Ralph — Bradwardine — William 
Occam — Marsilius of Padua —Petrarch — Dante — Arnold of 
Brescia. 

As education and learning have at all times so much 
influence on the condition of a church, it may be proper, 
at this important crisis of the history, to introduce a 
brief account of the state of learning at the time we 
are now considering. The human intellect, uninformed 
by Divine grace, is indeed no sufficient judge of revealed 
truths ; and religion may truly exist in the heart, where 
there is no corresponding enlargement of the mind; 
but even human learning may be useful in clearing 
away the rubbish with which ignorance and supersti- 



PATRISTIC DIVINITY. 159 

tion are too apt to overlay the pure tenets of revelation : 
it serves to open the mind, and to excite the inquiry 
which it cannot satisfy ; and thus to prepare the way 
for a more intelligent reception of those truths, which 
alone can ■ make wise to salvation.' 

It will not be needful to repeat from former notices 
the care that was taken, in earlier ages, to promote the 
instruction of the people by schools of different sorts, 
parochial, cathedral, or monastic. It was less the 
fault of the church than of the times, that those schools, 
open to all, were chiefly frequented by the clergy, or 
by children educating for that profession. Prom the 
VHth to the Xllth age, it has been noted by accurate 
observers that, with few exceptions, knowledge became 
confined to the possession of ecclesiastics: it was also 
limited to the routine of the trivium (as it was called,) 
which included grammar, logic, and rhetoric ; or, at 
most, was extended to the quadriviwn,* or study of the 
four branches of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and 
music. But in the Xllth century was witnessed a 
decidedly increasing spirit of inquiry and range of know- 
ledge. The study of the ancient Roman law, revived 
by the discovery of the Pandects of Justinian, 1137, 
led to the compilation of a similar ecclesiastical code. 
The canons of the western church began to be col- 
lected by the monk Gratian; and these were enlarged 
under successive popes; presenting, however, a some- 
what incongruous mass of materials, as the very name 
given to the collection of Gratian seems to imply .f 

The school of masculine and original thought, based 
on the study of Scripture, had long since passed away 
with the Fathers of the first six centuries, and had 



* These seven studies together formed afterwards the Faculty of 
Philosophy. Divinity, Jurisprudence and Medicine, were the Other 
three faculties. 

t He called it ' Concordia discordantium canonum. 1 



160 SCHOLASTIC DIVINITY. 

been succeeded by a race of feeble retailers of Augus- 
tine and Gregory. The fountains of Scripture were 
more and more forsaken for the ingenious, but fallible, 
disquisitions of men. Aristotle became the oracle ; 
and even Divine revelation was submitted to the syllo- 
gistic system. The method was much adopted by the 
more learned of the monks, and especially by John the 
Sophist, and in this country Anselm and Lanfranc, 
Abelard (1125,) the famous teacher of theology in 
Paris, excelled in this school, but was fiercely encoun- 
tered by St. Bernard. To correct the excesses of the 
new method, since called the Scholastic, and to avoid 
any eccentric conclusions of its divines, Peter Lombard, 
another celebrated theologian, published, 1150, an im- 
portant summary of doctrine, which has been called the 
theological wonder of the middle ages, and got him the 
name of the Master of the Sentences. His book was a 
compilation of the principal doctrines of the church, 
gathered out of Scripture and the ancient Fathers. The 
philosophy of Aristotle continued, however, to mingle 
itself so powerfully with all questions of divinity, that 
the study of it was not unfrequently condemned in 
councils of the church. But it grew in popular esteem 
with the schools, and was adopted eminently by Thomas 
Aquinas. This author was a Dominican, and a favourite 
of that body; he left, in 1274, writings which fill 
seventeen folio volumes, and among others a Sum of 
Theology, which, as a text-book, divided the attention 
of the schools with the famous * Sentences' of Peter 
Lombard. 

Bonaveniura, 1256, and Duns Scotus, 1290, were, on 
the other hand, the favourites, as they were members, 
of the Franciscan order. It was the fashion of the day 
to distinguish these eminent masters by peculiar names. 
Thus the ' Angelic Doctor' was the common title of 
Aquinas; the ' Seraphic Doctor' of Bonaventura ; the 



MONKISH IGNOKANCE. 161 

* Irrefragable Doctor' of Alexander Hales, and so on. 
But great as unquestionably was tbe learning of the 
schoolmen, it seldom found its way from their pon- 
derous tomes into the heads or hearts of the vulgar. 
The wells might be full of water, but there was no way 
of drawing it out, and distributing it for the good and 
advantage of the peopled Even the monks were in 
general a most ignorant race.^ When copies of the 
Scripture first appeared in print, in their Hebrew and 
Greek originals, some of the monks declared from the 
pulpit,* 'that there was now a new language disco- 
vered called Greek, of which people should beware, 
since it was that which produced all heresies ; that in 
this language was come forth a book called the New 
Testament* which was now in every body's hands, and 
was full of thorns and briers. And there had also 
another language now started up, which they called 
Hebrew, and that they who learnt it were termed 
Hebrews.' The zeal, therefore, with which such persons 
lauded their respective fathers among the schoolmen, 
was more that of partizans towards members of 
their own body, than of disciples towards masters for 
whom they had any intelligent reverence. Meanwhile 
the biblical doctors, or doctors of the sacred page, as 
they were called, were altogether in disrepute.f In 
the words of the accurate and eloquent biographer of 
Wiclif, — s Such an instructor had to encounter the 
frown of papal infallibility, which forbad all appeal to 
the Scripture from the authority of the church. On 
the other hand, there awaited him the contemptuous 
scowl of the scholastic philosophy, which disdained 
any guide but Aristotle through the labyrinth of theo- 



* Hodius de Biblior. Text, original, lib. iii. c. 13. Erasm. Epist. 
lib. xxxi. No. 42, 

t See Mosheim, Cent. xii. p. 2, ch. iii. 

p2 



162 BIBLICAL DIVINITY. 

logy, and looked with utter scorn on those shallow 
spirits who resorted directly to the sacred text for the 
pure and heavenly science of salvation. In this and 
the two preceding centuries, the compilations of Peter 
Lombard were in much higher and more universal 
estimation than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The 
graduate, says Roger Bacon, who reads (or lectures on) 
the text of the Scripture, is compelled to give way to 
the reader of the i Sentences/ who everywhere enjoys 
honour and precedence. He who reads the I Sentences/ 
has the choice of his hour and ample entertainment 
among the religious orders. He who reads the Bible 
is destitute of these advantages, and sues like a mendi- 
cant to the reader of the 4 Sentences' for the use of 
such hour as it may please him to grant. He who 
reads the ' Sums of Divinity' is everywhere allowed to 
hold disputations, and is everywhere venerated as 
master ; he who only reads the text is not permitted 
to dispute at all. The language of John of Salisbury 
in the twelfth century was still stronger. He tells us 
that < in his time the more scriptural teachers were 
not only rejected as philosophers, but unwillingly 
endured as clergymen — nay, were scarcely acknow- 
ledged to be men. They became objects of derision, 
and were termed ' the bullocks of Abraham or the 
asses of Balaam.' If, as some have conjectured, the 
Scriptures of the Old and "New Testament were the two 
Apocalyptic witnesses, well may they be said to have 
* prophesied in sackcloth' in those dark times. They 
bore, indeed, a perpetual testimony to the truth of the 
living God ; but all this while they stood before men, 
as it were, in the garb and guise of culprits and peni- 
tents ; the record which they bore was heard with 
irreverence and suspicion. Like penitents, they were 
scarcely allowed to show themselves in the assemblies 
of the faithful ; or, at all events, were suffered to appear 



UNIVERSITIES. 163 

there only in the unworthy and humiliating disguise of 
a foreign tongue ; and few there were who ventured to 

appeal unto their testimony (Thus) was the 

biblical method of instruction trodden under foot by 
the fastidious pride of the scholastic discipline, and by 
the overbearing authority of irrefragable and seraphic 
doctors.'* 

Upon the whole we may observe that the age was 
not an inquiring age; that the curriculum of study 
was, even with the most learned, narrow and con- 
tracted ; while the people were left in general ignorance 
and superstition. And thus we may account for the 
fact, that the yoke of Home was still so patiently 
borne ; that the desire of reform was so long kept 
down; and that when it did break out, it extended 
only to the redress of a few practical grievances, and 
hardly penetrated beyond the surface of the evil. 

With art and science it fared very little better. 
Roger Bacon, an English friar, and the most extra- 
ordinary proficient of his age in philosophy, arts, and 
language, and the author of many ingenious discoveries, 
was many years confined to a prison. Other distin- 
guished philosophers shared the same fate; and the 
multitude regarded them as magicians and heretics. 
The practice of medicine of course had never been 
entirely in disuse ; but what was known of the science 
of it was borrowed chiefly from the schools of Arabia, 
and it was not till the Xlllth century that a school 
of medicinef was founded in Europe at Salerno. About 
the same time the universities of Paris, Bologna, and 
Salamanca, rose into eminence, where the arts were 
cultivated; but they were especially founded for the 



* Le Bas' Life of Wiclif, ch. iii. 
f The chief practitioners of medicine up to the thirteenth century, 
in Europe, appear to have been the monks and clergy. Teeth and 
nails of saints performed as wonderful cures as anything ! 



164 SCHOOL OF REFORMERS. 

study of theology and civil law. With Cimabue and 
Giotto the art of painting grew into new vigour ; and 
architecture (for which, if anything, we must allow 
the palm to the middle ages,) continued to be cultivated 
with eminent success. The latter science has been 
elegantly and appropriately termed the * Literature of 
the Middle Ages.' But with all the improvements in 
arts and sciences — which, emanating from the remains 
of Roman civilization in the west, or from the rival 
schools of Arabia in the east, gave fresh promise in 
Europe in the twelfth and following centuries — there 
was no corresponding advance in religious knowledge, 
the Scriptures being buried in dead languages, or 
under heaps of musty commentaries replete with the 
sophisms of the schools. 

There were noble spirits still, and some who desired 
earnestly the day of better things. For, not to mention 
our own Wiclif,* there were Fitz Ralph, and Occam, 
and Bradwardine ; and in Italy, Marsilius of Padua, 
Cmsenas, and others. The former of these was arch- 
bishop of Armagh, 1347, and the latter archbishop of 
Canterbury, 1349, and acquired by the power and 
excellence of his writings the name of the f Profound 
Doctor/ Fitz Balph laboured to disseminate the 
knowledge of the Scriptures, which he got translated 
into the Irish tongue. He was summoned on a charge 
of heresy to Avignon for his marked opposition to the 
monks ; and died two years after, 1357. Caesenas, 
general of the order of St. Francis, Occam, an eminent 
teacher in the university of Paris, and Marsilius, a 
counsellor of state to the Emperor Louis of Bavaria- 
all these incurred the displeasure of the popes, from 
the freedom with which they attacked the prevalent 
corruptions of Rome. They were greatly in favour 
with Lewis of Bavaria, an emperor so favourable to 



* See below, ch. vi. 



WILLIAM DE NOGARET. 165 

reform, that if his life had been spared for a longer 
term it would probably have led at once to a general 
movement through all Europe in behalf of that cause. 
Petrarch and Dante are worthy of being added to the 
gallant band. Romish* calumniators declared of Dante 
that he died through the visitation of heaven for his 
many calumnies against Ms popes. 

The burning of Arnold of Brescia has not been men- 
tioned in these pages ; but it seems to have been for 
political more than for ecclesiastical offences, as he con- 
tinually excited the Roman people to rebellion, though 
he also decried the payment of tithes and other eccle- 
siastical dues. After many fruitless excommunications 
he was delivered up to the pope by the Emperor Fre- 
deric I., and suffered death at Rome, much beloved by 
the people, a. p. 1155. 



Chaptee IV. 

Nogaret, v. Boniface VIII., continued— Nogaret promoted by Philip 
— Philip procures the election of Clement V., the first Avignon 
pope — Also the absolution of Nogaret — And the condemnation 
of the order of Templars — Extinction of that order decreed by- 
Council of Vienne, 1312 — Seven popes reign at Avignon, and all 
Frenchmen, 1305-1378 — Their general character — Purchase of 
Avignon by Clement VI., Benedict XII., Innocent VI. — Jubilee, 
the Bull of Clement VI. for its repetition, 1350 — Benedict XI. 
dies at Rome, and Urban VI., an Italian pope, is elected, 13 73 
— His character — The same year another, and a rival pope, is 
elected, Clement VII. — The • Great Western Schism' begins — In 
the Roman line, Boniface IX., Innocent VII., Gregory XII. 
(Angelo Corrario) succeed — In the Avignon line, Benedict XIII. 
(Pietro di Luna) — Royal ordinance in France refusing allegiance 
to both popes, 1398 — Three methods proposed by University of 
Paris for terminating the schism — Benedict is besieged in Avig- 
non ; effects his escape ; and offers terms — Death of Boniface — 
Council of Pisa called. 

An event now occurred which seemed to offer an easy 
solution of the French difficulties with the pope, but 



* Bzovius, anno 1321, § xxi. 



166 RECESS OF AVIGNON. 

which eventually tended greatly to the degradation of 
the Eoman see. The insult on the person of pope 
Boniface, in the attempt to arrest him by William de 
JNTogaret, had not yet been forgotten. I>Togaret, on the 
death of Boniface, so far from showing signs of contri- 
tion, openly continued his opposition, and prosecuted 
a suit which he had commenced against the late pope 
at the court of Borne, accusing him of heresy, simony, 
and a great many other crimes. In reward for his 
heroic services he was promoted by the king, his master, 
to the chancellorship of France. It was expedient, 
however, to bring these contests to an end ; and Philip 
thought, if he could procure the election of a French 
pope, and still more if he could persuade him to reside 
in France, that it might not only facilitate an imme- 
diate reconciliation, but also permanently attach the 
court of Eome to the interests of France. This 
scheme he thought might even be acceptable to the 
popes themselves, as offering them an asylum from 
those troubles in which Italy was involved by the in- 
cessant feuds of Guelph and Ghibeline. It further 
appears that the king entertained the design of getting 
rid of the order of the Xnights Templars, who had long 
been obnoxious to him, and of procuring the assent of 
the popes to that measure. On the death of Bene- 
dict XL, who succeeded to Boniface, the king success- 
fully accomplished his design. By his means the 
archbishop of Bordeaux was elected to the vacant 
chair by the name of Clement V., and was further 
induced to take up his residence in Provence. And 
thus began the famous * recess of Avignon,' which was 
the name of the city where the papal court was now 
established, and where it continued for a period face- 
tiously called by the Eoman people the Babylonish 
Captivity. Seven popes (all Frenchmen,) reigned at 
Avignon during seventy-three years, 1305 — 1378; 



VENALITY OF ROME. 167 

Clement V., John XXII., Benedict XII., Clement YI., 
Innocent VI., Urban V., and Gregory XI. 

Philip demanded to have the body of Boniface dis- 
interred and publicly burnt, and his memory dis- 
honoured. So extreme a measure Clement contrived 
to avert; but he only effected it by consenting to 
absolve Nogaret, as he had before done the French 
king and all his subjects. The counsels of Philip still 
prevailed against the unfortunate Templars. This 
order had grown to great wealth and power, and were 
accused of abusing these advantages to the indulgence 
of the most abominable licentiousness, and even to acts 
of open profaneness and blasphemy. Upon charges of 
this nature, and refusing to confess their guilt, no less 
than fifty-nine of the Order were burnt in Paris in 1310. 
Shortly after, the great master shared the same fate; and 
at the council of Vienne, 1312, the total extinction of 
the order was decreed, and their estates variously con- 
fiscated to the king or some other parties. 

While the Romans regretted the absence of the 
court, and began to miss their accustomed share in its 
proverbial extravagance, France and the rest of Europe 
appear to have become disgusted by the nearer view 
of the manners of that court. The popes continued to 
give out laws to the world, but the nearer sight of the 
vices and profligacy with which they were too commonly 
surrounded, tended rather to cast suspicion on their 
pretensions, and to breed the contempt which usually 
accompanies familiarity. John XXII., the successor 
of Clement, excelled his predecessors in the acts of 
enriching the papal treasury. Every crime is said to 
have had its price : absolution for murder might be had 
by a deacon for twenty crown3, by a bishop for about 
three hundred livres.* 



* Denina 14, vi. ; quoted by Waddington. This John, though 
excessively avaricious, appears to have been no indifferent divine : 



168 TREASURY OF INDULGENCES. 

Tlie splendour of the court of Avignon was increased 
under Clement VI, by the purchase of the city itself; 
and we read of that pope, * that he died celebrated for 
the splendour of his establishment, for the sumptuous- 
ness of his table, and for his magnificent display of 
horses, squires, and pages ; for the scandalous abuse of 
his patronage ; for manners little becoming the sacred 
profession, and for the most unrestrained andunmuffled 
profligacy , # Of Benedict XII and Innocent VI, it is 
just to say, that both in personal character and in the 
endeavours which they made to reform the manners of 
the clergy, they deservedly stand high among their 
order. Yet still, through all this period, the profligate 
sale of indulgences continued to occasion infinite 
scandal to the church. The celebration of the Jubilee 
was perpetuated; and even made of more frequent 
occurrence. The terms in which Clement VI., by a 
bull issued for the purpose, ratified the institution of 
Boniface, are remarkable. * The law of God,' he said, 
1 has acquired for us an infinite treasure of merits, to 
which those of the Virgin and all the saints are joined ; 
he has left the dispensation of that treasure to St. Peter 
and his successors ; and consequently, Pope Boniface 
VIII. had rightfully ordained, that all those who, in 
the year 1300, and every following centurial year, 
should worship for a specified number of days in the 
churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at Home, should 
obtain full indulgence for all their sins. But we have 
considered,' he continues, ' that in the Mosaic law, 



he ventured to oppose the current doctrine, which taught the imme- 
diate admission of the righteous, before the final resurrection, into 
the glories of the Divine Presence, called the Beatific Vision. He was 
brought to a kind of recantation of his presumed error before his 
death ; but in subscribing the common doctrine he still added, ' so 
far as is consistent with the condition of a separated soul' — which 
still gave scandal to the church. 

* Waddington, ch. xxii. 



GREAT WESTERN SCHISM. 169 

which Christ came spiritually to accomplish, the 
fiftieth year was the jubilee and remission of debts ; 
and having also regard to the short duration of human 
life, we accord the same indulgence to all henceforward 
who shall visit the said churches, and that of St. John 
Later an, on the fiftieth year.' 

Additional jubilees were afterwards prescribed, as 
we had before occasion to observe ;* but the centenary 
of 1300 was still kept up under the name of the secularf 
celebration. 

The Homans themselves, notwithstanding these tem- 
porary sources of profit, still very naturally clamoured 
for the return of the papal court. A seeming accident 
at length put an end to the non-residence of the popes 
at Rome. The circumstances deserve to be related in 
detail, as they led to the next most important event 
in the history of the Western church, viz., the Great 
Western Schism. Benedict XI., being persuaded to 
visit the ancient metropolis of the see, was taken ill 
there and died. The cardinals, acting on a rule which 
required the election to be made on the spot where the 
last pope died, met in conclave, though only sixteen of 
them were present, in the capital, and after much 
deliberation, interrupted by the criesj and riots of the 
Eoman populace, agreed upon electing (1378) the arch- 
bishop of Bari, who took the name of Urban VI. The 
election had proceeded with the usual solemnities, and 
the result had been clearly notified to the different 
courts of Europe and to the seven other cardinals which 
then made up the whole college. Afterwards, however, 
upon offence being taken, and especially among the 



* See above, ch. i. 

f So called from Seculum, the Latin designation for 100, or such 
other determined course of years. 

% The cry of the people was for a f Roman pope, or at least an 
Italian.' Romano lo voUmo Papa o almeno Italiano. 

Q 



170 URBAN VI. CLEMENT VII. 

absent section of the cardinals, at the high tone of 
authority assumed by the new pope, and at some other 
points in his conduct,* the college had resort to the 
plan of declaring the election informal, — the result, 
they said, of popular intimidation and not the free 
choice of the electors, There was some truth in this ; 
but still the informality must have been known to them 
before they proclaimed Urban pope, and published his 
election to all the world. Nothing daunted, however, 
by this appearance of inconsistency, and thoroughly 
dissatisfied with the Homan pope, the cardinals from 
Avignon met at Fondi with the rest of the body, and 
casting off allegiance to Urban (dissentient only three 
of the number, who were Italians), they proceeded the 
same year to elect a G-erman, the cardinal Hobert of 
G-eneva, in his room, by the name of Clement VII 

Thus, while apart of the college of cardinals acknow- 
ledged Clement, the rest were of the obedience, as 
they styled it, of Urban. The Italians and Eoman 
cardinals kept up the succession in the line of Urban, 
by electing successively Boniface IX., f Innocent VIII. , 



* Sismondi says of Urban VI., ' He was considered learned and 
pious. The cardinals had not, however, calculated on the develop- 
ment of the passions which a sudden elevation sometimes gives, or 
on the degree of impatience, arrogance, and irritability of which 
man is capable in his unexpected capacity of master, though in an 
inferior station he had appeared gentle and modest.' He soon 
quarrelled with all his cardinals, deposed as schismatics all who had 
elected Clement, and replaced them by a new and more numerous 
college. But with these he agreed no better than with the former. 
He was always suspecting them of conspiracy. Six of them he con- 
demned to dark and noisome dungeons ; * some, he ordered to be 
thrown into the sea in sacks and drowned ; others, he had tortured 
in his presence, and while he calmly recited his breviary! He 
quarrelled with the Romans, and the new sovereign of Naples, whom 
he had himself named ; he paraded his incapacity and rage through 
all Italy; and finally took refuge at Genoa, where he died, 13S9.' 

t Boniface IX. was remarkable for the prodigality with which he 
granted indulgences. Not willing, he said, to deprive those of the 
spiritual consolation who might he prevented coining to Rome, he 



BENEDICT XIII. It I 

and Gregory XII., to the vacant chair. The Avignon 
cardinals, on the death of Clement,* elected also a suc- 
cessor in the same line, who lived to nearly the end of 
the schism. This was the famous Pietro di Luna, 
by his new name, Benedict XIII. — famous above all 
for his tenacity of office, and for the unwearied duplicity 
with which he sought to retain it. Indeed, to such a 
pitch did he carry his perseverance, that the whole 
French people (1398), otherwise his warmest partizans, 
and not acknowledging the other pope, withdrew their 
allegiance from him, thinking it better to have no spi- 
ritual head at all, than to be under one so absolutely 
preferring his own elevation to the peace of the whole 
church. For four or five years the French remained 
in this state of neutrality, and without an acknowledged 
head. * By the aid and advice of our nobles, and of 
the church of our kingdom/ so ran the royal proclama- 
tion, l we entirely withdraw our obedience from pope 
Benedict XIII., as Well as from his adversary, whom, 
indeed, we have never acknowledged. And we ordain 
that henceforward no one make any payment to pope 
Benedict, his collectors, or agents, from the ecclesias- 
tical revenues or emoluments. We also strictly pro- 
hibit all our subjects from offering to him any manner 



sent out a liberal supply to other towns, particularly to Cologne and 
Magdeburg, where indulgences might be purchased for the same 
consideration that it would have cost to make the journey to Rome. 
The way was, when the commissioners of Boniface arrived in any 
city, to suspend a flag at the windows with the arms of the pope 
and the keys of the church. Then they prepared tables in the 
cathedral church by the side of the altar, covered with rich cloths, 
like bankers, to receive the purchase-money. They then informed 
the people of the absolute power with which the pope had invested 
them to deliver souls from purgatory, and give complete remission 
to all who bought their wares ! See Waddington, ch. xxiii. 

* Clement died of vexation at hearing that it was the general 
wish that both the rival popes should resign. The remarkable ends 
of some of the other popes, as of Boniface IX., about this time, will 
be mentioned presently. 



172 DIVIDED OBEDIENCE. 

of obedience.' So strong a measure, it has been ob- 
served, was never yet taken by any Roman-catholic 
country. "We should have added, that no pains had been 
spared to bring the schism to a more satisfactory con- 
clusion. Parliaments, councils, universities, kings, had 
anxiously consulted together. Three methods were 
proposed by the university of Paris, long celebrated 
for the distinguished learning and talent of its doctors ; 
viz., (1) the method of cession, i. e., • of both popes re- 
signing absolutely, and consenting to a new election ; 
(2) of compromise, or mutual accommodation ; (3) of 
referring the whole business to the decision of a general 
council. The method of resignation was that which 
they most recommended ; but this implied the concur- 
rence of both the rivals, which it proved so difficult if 
not impossible to obtain. On the publication of the 
king's decree in Prance (1398), Benedict was detained 
as a prisoner in his own palace at Avignon ; and for 
four years he was kept in this disagreeable situation, 
watched and hemmed in by a considerable force. At 
the end of this time he contrived to make his escape, 
and fled to Perpignan, in Spain. On March 12, 1403, 
the successor of St. Peter was to be seen, in the dis- 
guise of a menial, eluding the vigilance of his guards, 
and repairing by stealth to a place of safety. Here he 
was joined anew by some of the cardinals and bishops 
attached to his side, and opened fresh negotiations, or 
rather issued fresh commands to the people of France. 
At first, the bearers of his message were seized and 
ill-treated, the bull was indignantly torn up, and the 
neutrality proclaimed afresh. This seems to have had 
some effect on the pontiff, for he now spoke of being 
ready to meet his rival, and if Boniface would resign, 
he promised he would do the same. Ambassadors were 
sent to Rome with proposals to this effect. But Boni- 
face was so enraged by the proposal, that he shortly 



COUNCIL OF PISA. 178 

after sickened and died. The Eoman cardinals, before 
proceeding to a fresh election, took the precaution of 
pledging one another, that on whomsoever the choice 
should fall, he should be willing afterwards to resign, 
on condition of the resignation at the same time of the 
Avignon pope. The choice fell on Innocent VII ; but 
no sooner was he made pope, than he forgot his pledge, 
and the schism continued. It was thus passed on to the 
next Eoman pope, Angelo Corrario, who succeeded 
(1406) by the name of Gregory XII. The hollow pro- 
mise of a conditional resignation was again repeated; 
but on neither side do the pontiffs appear to have had 
any sincere intention of redeeming the pledges extorted 
from them, or of sacrificing place and power to the good 
and peace of the church. It was now that the university 
and church of France renewed the suspension of obe- 
dience to both pretenders. But, indeed, all Europe was 
growing weary of the contest ; and no hope presenting 
itself from the good disposition of the rival chiefs of the 
church, it was at length resolved that the cardinals should 
take upon them to summon a general council to compose 
the question* and this council was to meet at Pisa. 



Chapteb V. 

Two other councils called— The chief meets at Pisa, 1409— Pro- 
ceedings of council of Pisa — Deposition of the two popes, Cor- 
rario and di Luna — Election of Alexander V. — Ditto of John 
XXIII. — John calls council of Constance, 1414 — Proceedings 
of council of Constance — Deposition of the three popes — Their 

ends — Election of Martin V Notions of reform, reformers, 

and anti-reformers — Committee of reform— Character of Sigis- 
mund — Remarks of Mosheim — Breaking up of the council of 
Constance — General councils declared superior to popes — 
Abrupt dissolution of council by Martin — Form of dissolution. 

The greatest activity was now displayed on every side 

to put an end to a schism which had already troubled 

Q2 



174 ELECTION OF ALEXANDER V.. 

the Western church for near thirty years. Besides 
the projected council at Pisa, Gregory, supported hy 
Ladislaus, king of Naples, and throwing all the fault 
on Benedict, determined to call a council at Aquileia. 
Another was summoned by Benedict to meet at Per- 
pignan. A diet of the empire was also convened at 
Francfort ; while the king of France called together 
the prelates of his kingdom at Paris. But the favourite 
was the council which the cardinals proposed to hold at 
Pisa. Here, accordingly, in 1409, were gathered depu- 
ties from every country, twenty-two cardinals, four 
patriarchs, twelve archbishops, sixty-five bishops, with 
eighty-five deputies from chapters, and sixty-seven 
ambassadors from kings and sovereign princes. The 
council began by summoning the rival popes, Angelo 
Corrario and Pietro di Luna; but no one appearing for 
them, they were pronounced contumacious, and were 
formally deposed fron% their office. The council went 
on to pronounce the right of the united college of car- 
dinals to call a general council, and therein to consider 
and amend whatever might require reform. They freely 
censured the vices of the apostolic see, and endea- 
voured to provide for its reformation by appointing the 
early assembling of a second council in another three 
years. After deposing the rival pretenders to the 
papal chair, they proceeded to the election of a new 
pontiff, their choice falling upon Alexander V., 1409. 
Alexander being seventy years of age when he was 
elected, died the next year at Bologna, and was suc- 
ceeded by Balthasar Cossa, a remarkable character, 
who took the name of John XXIII. John was by 
habit and disposition more of the soldier than the 
priest, and soon plunged into a war with Ladislaus, the 
king of Naples, who favoured the pretensions of his 
rival Gregory. To give weight, as he thought, to his 
authority, John agreed with the Emperor Sigismimd to 



COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 175 

summon another council, which was to meet at Con- 
stance. This council he opened in person, 1414. The 
number of cardinals, bishops, foreign ambassadors, and 
learned ecclesiastics, was even greater than at Pisa, 
and all vied with each other in the splendour of their 
retinue. But John found himself overreached by the 
emperor, when the council proceeded to press him to 
set the example of a resignation, which was next to be 
followed by Corrario and di Luna, who still maintained 
their pretensions to the papacy. John at first assented, 
but secretly withdrew to Sehauffhausen, and thence to 
Friburg, not intending any more to support the pro- 
ceedings of the council. The latter, nothing daunted 
by his absence, pronounced his deposition, and passed 
similar sentences upon the other two. Corrario gave 
in, and received in return the first place among the 
cardinals. John was likewise prevailed upon, by de- 
grees, to accept the sentence pronounced upon him. 
There only remained Pietro di Luna; but with him, 
neither threats, entreaties, nor promises, were of any 
avail. Sigismund himself, with twelve deputies, and 
supported by Alphonso of Arragon, went into Spain to 
endeavour to satisfy the haughty Spaniard. But all 
was in vain; and on the return of Sigismund, 1415, a 
fresh sentence of deposition was pronounced against 
him. Thus, if the council of Pisa deposed two popes, 
that of Constance deposed three. John, for fear of 
consequences, was for some time placed under confine- 
ment ; but he made his escape from prison, and went 
hastily to Florence, where he tendered his submission 
at the feet of the next pope, and dying six months 
after, he was buried with great magnificence in that 
city. Benedict broke up his court at Perpignan, and 
haughtily retreated to the fortress of Paniscola, where 
he ended his days amid the mock solemnities of his 
imagined pontifical dignity. His last regal friends, the 



176 ELECTION OF MARTIN V. 

kings of Castile and Arragon, upon discovering his 
incorrigible obstinacy, notwithstanding the sentence of 
two councils and the opinion of almost all Europe, had 
already deserted him, and only two cardinals remained 
at Paniscola to grace his council hall, and keep up the 
mockery of a court. After his death (1424) the same 
two cardinals went through the form of a fresh election, 
and Gilles Mugnos, a canon of Barcelona, assumed for 
a time the name of pope Clement VIII. But deserted 
by every one, he soon after retired to his former ob- 
scurity, and thus the pretended succession came to an 
end. 

Having thus disposed of the three contending 
claimants, the way was clear to proceed with a fresh 
election. They first added to the electoral body, for 
the present occasion only, six prelates from each of the 
five nations of Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and 
England. The question was then very earnestly agi- 
tated, whether the business of the election, or that of 
considering the needful reforms that were now every- 
where demanded in the church, should take precedence? 
Opinions were long divided on this point ; the Erench 
and German deputies, with the emperor himself, being 
for the reform, and the Italian and papal party for the 
election, coming first. The emperor and his party 
were at length drawn over to consent to the election 
being first proceeded with, on condition of a promise 
from the future pope to attend immediately on his 
election to the subjects of complaint, which, in a long 
list of eighteen articles, were then laid before him. 
With these preliminaries they went into conclave, and 
the choice fell unanimously on Martin V., who was in 
consequence universally acknowledged sole and undis- 
puted pope. 

In their measures of reform they were not equally 
successful. The very notions, indeed, at that time en- 



REFORMERS AND ANTI-REFORMERS. 177 

tertained on the subject, were extremely limited and 
imperfect, extending at the utmost to certain questions 
of external polity, to the curtailment of papal exactions, 
to enforcing the stricter residence, or to restraining the 
known licentiousness of the clergy, to the old scandal 
of simony and unlawful intercourse, and such other 
matters. Yet those who desired improvements in these 
respects were looked upon quite as a distinct party; 
both in councils and in the public estimation they 
formed a sort of opposition in the church, and were 
opposed by the extreme partizans of the court of 
Eome. With the former most usually the emperor 
sided, as well as the kings of Trance and England, and 
many sovereign princes. And thus, in an ecclesiastical 
sense, the imperial and papal parties were usually syno- 
nymous with the reformers and anti-reformers of the 
clay. But the reformers did wrong when they con- 
sented to trust the desired measures to the hands of 
the future pope, who was no sooner elected than he 
disappointed their hopes by abandoning one after 
another the chief of the reforms proposed. Very early 
in the sessions a committee had been appointed, con- 
sisting of four deputies from each nation, who were to 
consider of the common matters of complaint with a 
view to their redress. The Emperor Sigismund was 
distinguished among many others, particularly of the 
German, French, and English deputies, by his zeal for 
the immediate redress of the grievances. And after- 
wards, when the patience of these parties was exhausted 
by the continual procrastination of Martin V., and 
they applied to the emperor to urge him forward, 
Sigismund indignantly reminded them how they had 
thwarted him in his wishes before the election of the 
pope, and recommended them, now that they had se- 
cured his election, to apply to him for the performance 
of what they required. This emperor played a very 



178 SCHISM CONTINUED. 

couspicous, and on tlie whole creditable, part in the 
business of the council of Constance. His reign was 
much disturbed by the Turkish invasion of Hungary, 
and harassed by many troubles and disasters, or it is 
probable he would have insisted on the execution of 
many useful reforms. As it was, with the exception of 
his betrayal of John Huss, to whom he had promised 
a safe conduct, he was always on the liberal side. Yet 
his liberality was the liberality of the age ; and he was 
still, like Draco, for writing the laws of the Gospel in 
blood. He was against despotic power in an individual 
pope, but he had no objection to the most tyrannical 
use of it hy the church at large. It were to be wished 
that more doubt had been left us on this subject. But 
the treatment by this council of John Huss and Jerome 
of Prague, which we shall notice in the next chapter, 
and which was the unanimous act of all the parties pre- 
sent, shows too plainly that the real spirit of reform 
had not yet animated those who professed it. 

On the whole, one can understand how easily they 
might have felt satisfied with the one act of putting an 
end to the grievous schism (as they regarded it) which 
had for near fifty years disturbed the Western church; 
arid how this feeling would have prevented them giving 
due heed to the grievances (perchance much greater 
ones) that remained behind. Mosheim thus severely, but 
justly, comments on this part of the history. * Thus 
the unity of the Latin church, as existing under one 
head, came to an end at the death of Gregory XL, and 
that most unhappy disunion ensued, which is usually 
denominated the great schism of the West. For during 
fifty years the church had two or three heads; and 
the contemporary pontiffs assailed each other with ex- 
communications, maledictions, and insidious measures. 
The calamities and distress of those times are inde- 
scribable; for besides the perpetual contentions and 



PAPAL CONCORDATS. 179 

wars between the pontifical factions, which were ruin- 
ous to great numbers, involving them in the loss of 
life or of property, all sense of religion was in many 
places extinguished, and wickedness daily acquired 
greater impunity and boldness; the clergy, previously 
corrupt, now laid aside even the appearance of piety 
and godliness, whilst those who called themselves 
Christ's vicegerents, were at open war with each 
other ; and the conscientious people, who believed that 
no one could be saved without living in subjection to 
Christ's vicegerent, were thrown into the greatest per- 
plexity and anxiety of mind. Yet both the church and 
the state received very considerable advantages from 
these great calamities. For the very sinews of pon- 
tifical power were cut by these dissensions, and no art 
could heal them any more ; kings, too, and princes, 
who had before been in a sense the servants of the 
pontiffs, now became their judges and masters. More- 
over, great numbers, possessing some measure of dis- 
cernment, despising and disregarding pontiffs fighting 
for dominion, committed themselves and their salvation 
to God alone, in full assurance that the church and re- 
ligion might be safe, and continue so, although without 
any visible head.'* 

As for the pope, having secured his election, he 
seemed anxious only for the dismissal of the council. 
By treating separately with the Grerman and French 
parties, he managed to break up the main body of the 
reforming party; and with the governments of those 
countries he concluded two separate concordats, which 
yielded very little, and which in the sense of remedial 
measures amounted to nothing. At the same time a 
decree was passed, that another council should be held 
for the consideration of all matters at present post- 



* See Soames' Mosheim, Cent, xiv. p. 2, ch. ii. § 16. 



180 END OF COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 

poned, in another &ve years ; and another still, after the 
next seven years. As a general rule it was added, a 
council of the whole church was to be convoked every 
ten years. 

This remarkable council, notwithstanding the just 
disappointment of all the true friends of reform, yet, it 
must be admitted, did not separate without having 
enunciated several principles of the highest import- 
ance, and which led the way in succeeding generations 
to views more conformable to scriptural truth and 
apostolic practice. In the first year of this sitting, the 
fathers declared, ' That a general council representing 
the whole church held its power immediately from Jesus 
Christ, and that all persons, of what state or dignity 
soever, yea, even the pope himself, is obliged to obey 
it in everything that regards faith and the general 
reformation of the church in its members and in its 
head.' When John XXIII., who first called the 
council, retired from it, they further declared, 'that 
the pope's retreat did not hinder the council being- 
lawful. That it could neither be dismissed nor trans- 
ported to another place, but with consent of the mem- 
bers ; and that no person should withdraw himself 
from the council without their permission.' 

The council was at length summarily dissolved by 
the pope (1418) after sitting four years. In the form 
of their dismissal they were assured, for their consola- 
tion, that if they fasted regularly on every Friday, or 
did some other work of satisfaction to the church, they 
should receive plenary remission at the end of a year; 
and again, if they kept up the practice, in articulo 
mortis at the end of their lives. * Such were the con- 
solations,' says Mr. Waddington, 'which were offered 
to the most enlightened body which had ever yet assem- 
bled in the name of the church, in return for their dis- 
appointed expectations, by the very man whom they 



COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE CONTINUED. 181 

had raised to power, and whose first use of it was to 
betray them. They demanded a substantial reform, 
and he paid the debt in indulgences.' 



Chapter VI. 

Treatment by the Council of Constance of Huss and Jerome — 
Character, defence, and end of Huss — Ditto of Jerome — Wick- 
liffe's opinions, and how transported to Bohemia — Life of Wick- 
liffe — Wickliffe at Oxford — Warden of Balliol, &c, and professor 
of theology — Employed on deputation to the pope at Bruges — 
Rector of Lutterworth — Cited before convocation at St. Paul's, 
1877 — Escorted by John, duke of Lancaster, &c. — Cited again 
at Lambeth — Interposition of Joanna, widow of Black Prince — 
His fortitude on sick bed — Again summoned before Archbishop 
at Oxford — Deposed from theological chair — Retires to Lutter- 
worth, where he dies, 1384 — Wickliffe's character — His English 
translation of Bible — His scriptural sentiments — Remarks of 
professor Blunt — Progress of reformed opinions — Badeley — 
William de Sautre — Lord Cobham — Want of safe guides. 

When a reform of the church in its head and its mem- 
bers had so long been the outcry of all Christendom, 
it was a cowardly expedient of the late council, and an 
outrage on every feeling of religion or common justice, 
to put aside the main question of reform, and to turn it 
into an attack upon the persons of the reformers. The 
children cried for bread; the unnatural fathers gave 
them a scorpion. The victimizing of two such men as 
Suss and Jerome was a thing far more disgraceful to 
the council than to the individuals. They themselves 
were persons of no mean pretensions and character. 
John Huss was professor of divinity in the celebrated 
schools of Prague, and rector of that university. His 
merits had further recommended him to the court, 
where he held the appointment of confessor to the 
queen. Jerome of Prague, though a layman, had 
graduated in theology, was an ardent disciple of Huss, 

B 



182 HUSS AND JEROME. 

and has been praised by even an adversary,* as a man 
of eminent learning and eloquence. The fate of these 
two men occupies no inconsiderable place in the records 
of the council of Constance. The former of them, 
notwithstanding the pledge of safe-conduct given him 
by the Emperor Sigismund, was placed in confinement ; 
eight charges were brought against him, the front of 
his offending being, that he was a follower of Wickliffe ;f 
the privilege of being heard in his defence, either in 
person or by counsel, was for some time denied him ; but 
the remonstrances of the emperor prevailing at last in 
his behalf, when he was brought into court, and began 
his defence, he was rudely insulted by the multitude. 
When he appealed to Scripture, his voice was drowned 
by the jeers and the mockery of the council; and he 
was at length unanimously condemned to death, a.d. 
1415. Stripped of his sacerdotal robes, and bearing a 
cap with the odious title of JELeresiarch and hideous 
figures of demons upon it, he was led to the stake. 
His judges, according to the custom, piously devoted 
his soul to the infernal devils ; but the blessed martyr, 
meekly repeating his devotions and a few penitential 
psalms, resigned his life to the flames with these 
affecting words of prayer — ' Lord Jesus, I endure with 
humility this cruel death for thy sake, and I pray thee 
to pardon all my enemies/ 

Jerome, under the pressure of his calumniators and 
persecutors, was once driven to a formal recantation ; 
but when time was given him he recovered courage and 
remained constant to the end. Another opponent 



* iEneas Sylvius, afterwards Pius II. 
t The specific charges brought against him were such as these : 
the holding — (1) That communion in both kinds is necessary to 
salvation; (2) That 'the bread remains bread after consecration; 
(3) That ministers in a state of mortal sin cannot administer the 
sacraments, &c. &c. 



LIFE OF WICKLIFFE. 183 

bears this honourable testimony to the fortitude with 
which he ultimately met his sentence ; ' Such/ he says,* 
* was the end of a man incredibly excellent. I was an 
eye-witness to that catastrophe and beheld every act. 
I know not whether it was obstinacy, or incredulity, 
that moved him, but his death was like that of some 
one of the philosophers of antiquity. Mutius Scsevola 
placed his hand in the flame, and Socrates drank the 
poison, with less firmness and spontaneousness, than 
Jerome presented his body to the torture of the fire/ 

The reformed opinions which had thus spread in 
Bohemia, are with much probability traced to Anne, 
widow of Richard II. of England, a princess of Bohemia, 
who, upon the death of the king, returning to her 
native country, brought over with her the books and 
writings of Wickliffe, the English reformer. It is 
certain that Wickliffe was much read and admired 
there, and that Huss professed himself the Englishman's 
disciple. Wickliffe was born in Yorkshire about a.d. 
1324. He became a member of Queen's, and after- 
wards of Merton, College, Oxford, where his talents 
raised him to the wardenship of Baliol, 1361. Erom 
thence he was promoted by Islep, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, to be head of Canterbury Hall. But this appoint- 
ment displeasing the pope, as being contrary to a 
statute requiring the office to be held only by a monk, 
"Wickliffe was removed from thence to the chair of 
theology in the same university. He was probably no 
favourite of the pope; as in several of his earlier 
writings, particularly a tract on the 'Last Age/ and 
another against the mendicant orders, published 1356 
and 1360, he had spoken with considerable freedom 
on the evils of the day. As a proof, however, that he 
enjoyed the confidence of his own country and of the 



* Poggio of Florence : quoted in Waddington, ch. xxv. 



184 THROUGH JOHN OF GAUNT AND JOANNA, 

king, he was placed in 1374 on a commission of treaty 
with the pope, whose legates were to meet the king's 
delegates at Bruges : and, as another mark of the royal 
favour, he was presented by the crown to a prebendal 
stall and the living of Lutterworth, 1375. Amidst the 
united labours of his parish and the chair of theology, 
he found time for those powerful effusions of his pen 
which so much electrified the minds of that generation. 
The heads of the church by degrees took alarm ; and 
Wickliffe was summoned before convocation at St. 
Paul's ; but the powerful escort of John, duke of Lan- 
caster, lord Henry Percy, the Earl Marshal, and 
other influential persons who sided with the professor, 
overawed the judges, and nothing was done. The next 
year, 1378, he was cited again before certain papal 
delegates at Lambeth. But here, also, when they 
were about to condemn him, an authoritative message 
from Joanna,* the queen-mother, interrupted the pro- 
ceedings, and Wickliffe escaped with the injunction 
that he should cease from disseminating the obnoxious 
doctrines — such especially as his bold denial of the 
pope's infallibility, power of the keys, right over all 
property, right over kings, supreme power of abso- 
lution, &c. In the paper which Wickliffe on this occa- 
sion presented at Lambeth, and in another which he 
was preparing to lay before parliament, he professes 
himself openly desirous of a reformation in the church, 
and ready to maintain his opinions against the worst 
that his enemies could do. Biographers relate the 
following interesting example of his courageous bearing. 
During an illness occasioned by his many and painful 
labours, and which threatened to be dangerous, a depu- 
tation of monks surrounded his sick bed ; and in order 
to heighten the solemnity of the proceeding, they took 



* Joanna was widow of the Black Prince. 



HE ESCAPES HIS ENEMIES. 185 

care to be attended by the civil authorities. Four of 
their own doctors, together with as many aldermen of 
the wards, entered his chamber; and finding him 
stretched upon his bed, they opened their commission 
by wishing him a happy recovery from his distemper. 
They soon entered, however, on the more immediate 
object of their visit. They reminded him of the 
grievous wrongs he had heaped upon their fraternity, 
both by his sermons and his writings ; they admonished 
him, that to all appearance his last hour was approach- 
ing ; and they expressed their hope that he would seize 
the opportunity thus afforded him of making them the 
only reparation in his power, and penitently revoking 
in their presence whatever he might have uttered or 
published to their disparagement. This exhortation 
was heard by him in silence : but when it was con- 
cluded, he ordered his servants to raise him on his 
pillows ; and then, fixing his eyes upon the company, 
he said with a firm voice, ' I shall not die, but live, and 
again declare the evil deeds of the friars. ,# 

A last and more desperate effort was made against 
him, when Courtney succeeded to the primacy. A 
royal ordinance was passed, empowering the sheriffs of 
counties to proceed against any heretical followers of 
the new opinions, by imprisonment and other penalties, 
while the archbishop erected himself into a kind of 
inquisitor-general for bringing the same to trial, and he 
issued his commands to the suffragan bishops to insti* 
tute a searching inquiry. The leader himself they 
durst not as yet openly attack, chiefly, no doubt, from 
fear of the duke of Lancaster and other powerful 
supporters of his party. But as the controversy went 
on, and as it descended into subjects of a more doctrinal 
and speculative character, it was found that the interest 



* From Le Bus 5 Life of Wickliffe, ch. v. 

e2 



180 THE CHARGES AGAINST HIM. 

of the court began to flag, and Wickliffe, by degrees, 
was left to stand alone. This emboldened the side of 
his persecutors, and, for the last time, he was sum- 
moned before the convocation at Oxford. He replied 
in two confessions, a Latin, and an English defence of 
himself from the heresies charged upon him. # A sen- 
tence of banishment from Oxford was the chief result 
of the trial; but he had already lived to nearly the 
natural term of life, and he retired to his living of 
Lutterworth, where he spent the remainder of his days 
in the prosecution of his former studies, and in the 
discharge of pastoral duties. Worn out by a life of 
no ordinary labour and care, he was carried off by an 
attack of paralysis, which seized him during his public 
ministrations in church ; and in this condition he went 
peacefully to his rest in the sixty-first year of his age, 
a.d. 1384 

We have not enlarged on the particular opinions of 
Wickliffe. Some he entertained of which the best that 
can be said is, that he was goaded on to them by the 
malice of his adversaries, the inordinate ambition of 
the pontiffs, the degenerate condition of all orders in 
the church, and the too frequent absence of all genuine 
devotion in the outward administration of religious 
offices. The sight of this lamentable condition of 
things led him probably to take low views of church 
orders and ordinances, to speak as he did of ecclesias- 



* A charge of heresy was brought against him, consisting of 
twenty-four articles, on ten of which they found him heretical, and 
on the rest unsound. The ten articles related to the forfeiture of 
the priestly function and power by mortal sin — to the Heedlessness 
Of auricular confession — to the unlawfulness of temporal possession 
held by the clergy — to the derivation of the pope's authority from 
the emperor — to certain opinions on the sacrament of the mass — 
and in one of them he was charged with asserting that God ought 
to obey the deYil 1— From Le Bas> Life, ch. vii. 



HIS END. 187 

tical property and endowments.* But to pass over a 
few eccentricities not difficult to account for, we hail 
hini as a man of eminent piety, unimpeachable morals, 
and the great light of the times in which he lived. 
Prom this mighty and intrepid spirit went forth, as it 
were, the first blast of the great trumpet which was 
shortly to arouse the attention of the world, and to 
shake the Romish hierarchy to its centre. The only 
reward that he received from the councils was, that his 
books were ordered to be collected and burnt ; and his 
very remains were to be sought for and committed to 
the flames. The order was rigidly executed ; his bones 
dug up and burnt, and the ashes cast into an adjoining 
brook. ' The brook,' says Fuller, ' did convey them 
into Avon ; Avon into Severn ; Severn into the narrow 
seas ; they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes 
of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now 
is dispersed all the world over.' The work which 
immortalized him was his translation from the Vulgate 
of the books of Holy Scripture,f which he first gave to 
England in an entire English version; ' It was espe- 
cially by this great and good work/ says professor 



* He represented them as little more than ahns, which might be 
revoked at the pleasure of princes and patrons ; thus leaving the 
ministers of religion entirely dependent on the will and caprice of 
their flocks. 

t The Psalter and the Gospel, or, as some say, all the books of 
the Bible, were translated into the Anglo-Saxon in the eighth 
century by Venerable Bede, who is related to have finished the last 
chapter of the Gospel of St. John as he expired. The whole Bible 
was translated into the Anglo-Saxon by order of king Alfred. He 
undertook the version of the Psalms himself, but did not live to 
complete it. But in the English language, as spoken after the 
Conquest, no complete translation of the Bible appeared till that of 
Wickliffe. Richard Iiolle, an hermit of Hampole in Yorkshire, in 
1349, had paraphrased and translated certain parts; and a few of 
the historical portions here and there were to be met with in rhymes 
and ballads, and some were made not very decorously the subjects 
of popular melodrames. — From the Introduction to Bishop Gray's 
Key to the Old Testament. 



188 DIFFUSION OF SCRIPTURES. 

Blunt, ' that the pleasure of the Most High prospered 
in his hand. An eager appetite for scriptural know- 
ledge was excited among the people, which they would 
make any sacrifice and risk any danger to gratify. 
Entire copies of the Bible,* when they could only be 
multiplied by means of amanuenses, were too costly to 
be within the reach of very many readers : but those 
who could not procure the ' volume of the book,' would 
give a load of hay for a few favourite chapters, and 
many such scraps were consumed upon the persons of 
the martyrs at the stake. They would hide the for- 
bidden treasure under the floors of their houses, and 
put their lives in peril rather than forego the book they 
desired ; they would sit up at night, their doors being 
shut for fear of surprise, reading or hearing others 
read the word of God ; they would bury themselves in 
the woods, and there converse with it in solitude ; they 
would tend their herds in the fields, and still steal an 
hour for drinking in the good tidings of great joy ! 
Thus was the angel come down to trouble the water, 
and there was only wanted some providential crisis to 
put the nation into it that it might be made whole.' f 

It is interesting to hear Wickliffe's own arguments 
in favour of the free use of the Scripture among the 
people. * Scripture,' he says, * is the faith of the church, 
and the more it is known in an orthodox sense the 
better.' And again, ' Christ and his apostles converted 
the world by making known to them the truths of 
Scripture in a language familiar to the people ; and for 
this purpose the Holy Spirit gave them the knowledge 
of all tongues. Why, then, should not the disciples 
of Christ at the present day take freely from the same 
loaf and distribute to the people?' And he quotes 



* The price of Wickliffe's Xew Testament in the beginning of the 
fifteenth century was four marks and forty pence, or about 21. Ids. 3d. 
t Blunt's Reformation in England, Ch. V. 



INCREASE OF LOLLARD PARTY. 189 

the words of St. Augustine :* ' The Scripture is all the 
truth. 5 And how deeply his own mind was imbued 
with the spirit of those lively oracles must be obvious 
to every reader. c When we were sinful/ we find him 
saying, ' and the children of wrath, God's Son came 
out of heaven, and praying his Father for his enemies, 
he died for us. Then much rather shall we be saved, 
now that we are made righteous by his blood, 'f . . . 
* Covet not thy neighbour's goods, despise him not, 
slander him not, deceive him not, scorn him not, back- 
bite him not, the which is a common custom now- 
a-days; and so in all other things do no otherwise 
than thou wouldest reasonably that he did to thee. 
But many think, if they give a penny to a pardoner, 
they shall be forgiven the breaking of all the com- 
mandments of God ; and therefore they take no heed 
how they keep them. But I say to thee for certain, 
though thou have priests and friars to sing for thee, and 
though thou each day hear many masses, and found 
chantries and colleges, and go on pilgrimage all thy 
life, and give all thy goods to pardoners — all this shall 
not bring thy soul to heaven. While if the command- 
ments of God are revered to the end, though neither 
penny nor halfpenny be possessed, there shall be ever- 
lasting pardon and bliss of heaven.' 

We have the satisfaction of knowing, that not all 
the penal laws which in the next century stained the 
statute-book of England, had any effect to suppress 
the fire which Wickliffe kindled. A popish writer^ 
informs us, that in the next reign ' a man could not meet 
two persons on the road, but one of them was a disciple 
of Wickliffe.' For refusing to affirm that there is no 
natural bread remaining in the eucharist after certain 



* Epist. ad Valusicmum. 

t From Le Bas' Wickliffe, pp. 103, 111. 

X Knighton. 



190 WANT OF DISCREET GUIDES. 

syllables have been pronounced on it by the priest, 
many were led to the stake. Thus William Sautre, 
Badeley, the famous Lord Cohham, with thirty-five 
others, suffered nobly for their faithful confession. 
William Taylor was burnt for affirming that prayers 
to Heaven for any supernatural gift must be addressed 
to the Deity alone. 

It may be admitted, that for want of discreet guides 
there was occasionally some irregularity among the 
party of the reformers, which unhappily gave scandal 
to their enemies, and afforded them a handle of which 
they were too ready to avail themselves, to denounce 
the cause as that of rebels and fanatics. It was reserved 
for a later generation— for the Cranmers, the Kidleys, 
the Jewels of our own country in particular — to com- 
bine a strict reverence for the existing institutions of 
the church (so far as they were agreeable to ancient 
and apostolic usage) with an equal earnestness for the 
scriptural purity of its doctrinal teaching. Like wise 
master-builders, these later guides of the church desired 
not to disturb the foundations, but to repair the build- 
ing ; and the principle on which they went was that 
equal regard to evangelic truth and apostolic order, 
which alone could open the way to a safe and efficient 
reform. 



191 



Chapter VII. 

Council of Basle, 1431 — Disturbances in Bohemia — Bohemian 
deputies to the council — They demand communion in both 
kinds, and three other points — Further negotiations — Com- 
munions in both kinds conceded — Good effects of general 
councils — Compact of Iglau, 1436— Opposition of Pius II. — 
Treacherous murder of Taborite soldiery — Council of Basle con- 
tinued — Opposition of Eugenius IV. — Three objects of the 
council — Danger from the Turks — Treaty for reunion of East 
and West — Eastern prelates attend the Council of Ferara — 
Councils of Ferara and Florence, 1437-1442 — Act of Union 
between East and West — Bull of Eugenius IV. (1438) annulling 
future acts of Council of Basle — The Council elect a new pope, 
Felix V. — Accession of Nicolas V. (1447), and resignation of 
Felix — Act of union rescinded by Eastern Churches — Concordat 
of Nicolas with Germany — Council of Bourges in France, 1438— 
Pragmatic sanction. 

The last of tlie general assemblies of tlie church, which 
figured so conspicuously in the fifteenth century, was 
the Council of Basle, 1431. We should mention, 
that a decree of the council of Constance regarding 
lay communion had given much offence, as indeed it 
was well calculated to do, in many parts, particularly 
in Bohemia. It was then first decreed, that while the 
clergy were still to communicate in both elements at 
the Lord's Supper, to the laity it should be accounted 
sufficient to communicate in one kind. Aggravated by 
this and the other measures of the council, in condemning 
Huss and Jerome to the flames, disturbances soon broke 
out, among the people of Bohemia first, and also in 
other parts. The new decree they put in the fore- 
front of the grievances of which they complained. On 
one occasion they met together, and publicly celebrated 
in both kinds upon three hundred tables laid out for 
the purpose. One named ZisTca led the insurgents, 
who, to the number of thirty thousand, seized on the 
strong fortress of Tabor, whence they took the name 
of Taborites. They fell to pillaging and destroying the 



19S THE BOHEMIAN DEPUTIES. 

churches, and committing some other excesses. But 
there was always a more moderate section of reformers, 
who wished nothing unreasonable, and chiefly confined 
their complaints to the depriving the laity of the cup. 
This party were called the Calixtines, from the chalice 
for which they contended. Ziska gained many advan- 
tages over the imperial forces opposed to him, and 
dying in 1424, was succeeded in command by Procopius. 
After the death of Ziska, the Taborites were divided 
into another party, called the Orphans, or Orebites. 
These were generally a poorer class of people, and gave 
way to greater excesses than the Taborites. Meanwhile 
the more moderate among the Bohemians and Mora- 
vians listened to the overtures made to them to attend 
by deputation the council now sitting at Basle. Three 
hundred deputies were chosen, some ecclesiastics and 
some from among the military chiefs. Their appear- 
ance, 1433, produced a considerable effect upon the 
assembly, from the known terror of their arms, as well 
as from the ability of the leading men among them. 
Among the latter were John of Roksana, a priest, and 
'Peter Payne, an Englishman. They reduced their 
propositions to four heads. 1. That the eucharist 
might be administered to the laity in both kinds, 

2. That the word of God might be freely preached. 

3. That the clergy endowments should cease. 4. That 
public crimes might be punished by the magistrates. 
The disputes upon these points continued for fifty 
days ; but with no immediate success to the Bohemian 
deputies. The latter returned persisting in their sen- 
timents. The council now thought fit to send deputies 
from their own body to confer with them at home. 
They were well received by the more intelligent of the 
party, especially by many of the nobility and upper 
classes. The more moderate side, who still bore the 
name of Calixtines, gradually came to terms, and 



COUNCIL OF BASLE. 193 

agreed to return to the obedience of the church, upon 
condition only of being allowed to communicate in 
both kinds. 

Here was an instance of the salutary working of a 
general council. Mutual concessions are naturally the 
result ; and where there was more freedom of thought, 
and the constraints of papal truckling and subserviency 
were away, the same, and even greater, good effect 
might always be anticipated. The same moderation 
and prudence were exemplified in a compact soon after 
proposed and brought about by the Emperor Sigismund, 
at Tglau, 1436 ; by which he raised Eoksana to the arch- 
bishopric of Prague, and confirmed to the Bohemians 
the use of the cup. The churches were re-opened 
amidst universal joy. But to show again the bitter 
and incorrigible obstinacy of the papacy, even these 
measures displeased the pope.* He refused to sanction 
the compact, and his successor, Paul II., again lit up 
the flames of war in the disaffected countries. He 
began by deposing JPogebrac, who was now king of 
Bohemia, and so moderate a reformer that he had even 
taken up arms against the Taborites on several occa- 
sions. ' Yet he seems,' says Mr. Waddington,f 'to 
have been as much hated at Rome as if he had gone 
to the full extent of opposition, and he was certainly 
much less feared.' ' The Bohemians,' adds the same 
author, ' might have returned to the obedience of the 
church, contented with one almost nominal concession, 
if the chiefs of the hierarchy could have endured any 
independence of thought or action, any shadow of 
emancipation from their immitigable despotism. For 
this was, in fact, the spirit which guided the councils 
of Eome ; it was not the attachment to any particular 
tenet or ceremony which moved her to so much ran- 

* Pins II tCh. xxv. 



194 TREACHERY OF IMPERIALISTS. 

cour; but it was her general hatred of intellectual 
freedom, and the just apprehensions with which she 
saw it directed to the affairs of the church.' 

We must not omit a disgraceful scene which tarnished 
the proceedings of the imperialists during the unhappy 
contest. The account being taken chiefly from an 
historian of the time, himself afterwards a pope,^ there 
is the less doubt of its truth. A number of mixed 
Taborites and Calixtines having been taken prisoners 
of war, 1434, and it being designed to make an example 
of the one and to spare the other, a proclamation was 
made, offering pardon to the more experienced warriors, 
and even promising rewards for the courage and ability 
which they had long displayed. They were therefore 
invited to make the required selection from their 
number — which they accordingly did — and to withdraw, 
alone, to some adjacent buildings. ' Being here as- 
sembled, it was curious to see,' says the narrator, 
* many thousands of the Taborites and Orphans who 
had entered the barns assigned to them; they were 
men blackened, and inured and indurated against sun 
and wind; hideous and horrible of aspect; who had 
lived in the smoke of camps ; with eagle eyes, locks 
uncombed, long beards, lofty stature, shaggy limbs, 
and skin so hardened and callous as to seem proof, 
like mail, against hostile weapons. The gates were 
immediately closed upon them, fire was applied to the 
building, and by their combustion that ignominious 
band at length made atonement, for the crimes which 
it had perpetrated, to the religion which it had in- 
sulted.'f Can anything exceed the combined iniquity 
and cruelty of this savage butchery, committed in the 
name of the Prince of Peace ? 

The council of Basle was called by pope Martin V. ; 



* iEneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II. 
t Hist. Bo/iem. cap. li. 



OBJECTS OF THE COUNCIL. ] 95 

but before it met this pope died, and was succeeded by 
JEugenius TV., who was even more averse to its objects 
than his predecessors had been. Eugenius did nothing 
but thwart the proceedings of the council, and would 
have dissolved it but that he knew the contempt with 
which such an order would be received. For they 
were no sooner met, than they renewed the decrees 
declaratory of the pope's inferiority to a general council, 
which, they said, * represented the church itself, of 
which the pope was only the minister.' By his arti- 
fices, however, the projected reforms were continually 
delayed ; and in proportion as he saw the assembly in 
earnest, he redoubled his efforts to oppose and discon- 
cert them. The professed objects of the council were 
three : (1.) The reunion of the Latin and Greek churches. 
(2.) The reformation of the church in its head and 
members. (3.) The reconciliation of the Hussites. 
Their proceedings on the latter head we have already 
noticed. As it regards the second, four years went by 
without anything of importance being done. The pre- 
sident of the council was the famous cardinal, Julian 
Ccesarini, a man of eminent abilities, and appearing to 
have the cause of reform very sincerely at heart. But 
even he was drawn over by the pope, and the utmost 
that was done was to abolish annates and a number of 
other papal exactions. 

We come now to the last remaining object of the 
council — the settlement of the controversy with the 
Greek and Eastern churches. At a time when the 
Turks were hovering on the very borders of Europe, it 
is remarkable that the energy of the church, instead of 
being united against the common enemy, was still 
wasted on these internal dissensions between rival 
creeds. But the knell of the old eastern empire was 
already sounding, and a few short years were to witness 
the downfal of Constantinople, and to cry shame upon 
the nations of Christendom. What the powers of the 



196 EUGENIUS CALLS NEW COUNCIL. 

west seemed most concerned about was, to make use 
of the present fear as an instrument to bring over the 
eastern churches to the doctrine and discipline of the 
western. The points in dispute were still of the same 
comparative insignificance as before; but the great 
stumbling-block was the papal supremacy, and on this 
those venerable sisters of the east had no mind to give 
way. The popes must have almost known that the 
attempt to persuade them was hopeless, but it served 
as a useful handle for other schemes, and at least to 
occupy time and create delay. What the Greeks pro- 
posed was to assemble a general council, similar to 
the first seven, there to define the matters in dis- 
pute, and that this assembly should be held at 
Constantinople. Greek deputies attended at Basle, 
with a renewal of this proposal ; their request was 
acceded to, and they returned home. A deputation 
from Basle went after them, to agree further upon the 
place of meeting. Eugenius artfully sent another 
deputation of his own, and the latter arriving first, 
drew the Greek prelates to an agreement that the 
future councils should be held at Ferrara. By this 
artifice the pope obtained a plausible pretext for ad- 
journing the deliberations of Basle, in favour of his 
own private scheme of holding a council in Italy. But 
he found the western fathers obstinate, and while the 
pope anathematized the council, the council deposed 
the pope. The detail of their mutual charges and 
recriminations need not occupy us further than to 
notice that, in 1437, Eugenius formally opened a new 
council at Ferrara ; and the following year he pub- 
lished a bull, annulling all future decrees which might 
be issued from Basle. But the immediate effect of this 
was merely to lead to a fresh election on the part of 
the older council, who now raised Felix V. to the 
vacant chair. Thus might there again be seen pope 



COCJNCIL OF FEKRAKA. ] 97 

against pope, and council against council. And the 
only satisfaction is, that by this means the hold of the 
papacy on the blind veneration of mankind was gra- 
dually loosened in the west ; and thus the churches 
were gradually prepared to revert to the same inde- 
pendence which they still retained in the east, and 
which was indeed an essential element in the primitive 
constitution of the whole body. The proceedings at 
Ferrara were principally marked by an act of union, to 
which the Greeks were at length induced to subscribe ; 
and, a plague breaking out at Ferrara, the council was 
transferred to Florence, 1439, where it continued its 
sessions till 1442. In 1447 pope Eugenius died ; and 
his successor, Nicolas V., a learned, discreet, and 
peaceable man, found means to induce Felix to resign, 
and brought matters for a time to a smoother and more 
satisfactory condition. The resignation of Felix was 
approved by his own party, which, after the breaking 
up of the deliberations at Basle, in 1443, had occa- 
sionally met at Lausanne* The Greek deputies on 
their return to Constantinople met with nothing but 
blame and derision ; and the forced act of union was 
rejected without hesitation, though the Emperor Palseo- 
logus was a party to it. The patriarchs of Jerusalem, 
Antioch, and Alexandria, as well as the bishops, clergy, 
and people of Russia and the northern provinces, 
joined in condemnation of it, and the latter insulted 
and imprisoned a papal legate who was sent to publish 
it among them. 

As a small instalment of the reforms demanded by 
the late councils, Nicolas V, signed a concordat with 
the German church, providing chiefly for the reserva- 
tion of certain benefices to which the pope might 
appoint, and allowing others to the ordinaries : the 
papal confirmation was required in all cases. Such, 
s2 



198 NICHOLAS V. — COUNCIL OF BOUKGES. 

as it regards Germany,* was the contemptible fruit of 
the labours of so many learned bodies, consulting for so 
many years for the reform of the church. In France 
they made better terms ; for a national council being 
called at Bourges, 1438, by Charles VII., they re-enacted 
what was called the Pragmatic Sanction, consisting of 
twenty-three articles, guaranteeing certain liberties, such 
as the independence of canonical elections, &c, to the 
church of that country. Two principles were laid down, 
which became, in future, the law of the land.f (1.) That 
the pope had no authority in France over temporals. 
(2.) That his power even in spirituals is limited by the 
canons which have received the sanction of national 
synods. It was the possession of these privileges which 
accounts for the Roman Catholics of France, when the 
Eeformation broke out, remaining as a body so much 
more contented with their position than their brethren 
in Germany. 

To give a correct idea of those important councils, 
and their results, whose proceedings we have now been 
considering, we subjoin the following very admirable 
remarks of Mr. Waddington. J ' In return for their 
adherence to the favourite vice of the church (the 
spirit of persecution) did they amend any maxim of its 
government ? Did they uproot any unscriptural tenet, 
any superstitious belief, any profitable imposture, any 
senseless ceremony or degrading practice? Did they 
wash away any spiritual stain from the sanctuary, now 
that the light from abroad was breaking in upon it ? 
On the contrary, they not only persevered in niain- 



* Yet of all countries, Germany had been the scene of the greatest 
exactions and of continual struggles. A list of * Hundred Grievances* 
was presented from Germany to the Diet of Nuremburg, 1523 — 'a 
catalogue,' says Mr. Waddington, ' of hereditary wrongs.' 

t Some of the provisions of this law were given up afterwards by 
Francis I. to Leo I. in the fifth council of Lateran. 

X History of the Church t end of ch. xxiv. 



ADVANCE OF TURKS. 199 

taining every absurdity which had been transmitted to 
them, but showed a preposterous anxiety to increase 
the number. It is perfectly true, that in mere matters 
of discipline they were fearless innovators, and that 
they assailed with ardour the more palpable iniquities 
of the Vatican. But this was the extent of their daring ; 
this was the limit, as they thought, of safe and legiti- 
mate reform; all beyond it was inviolable ground. 
Thus it was that to question the sanctity of their 
spiritual corruptions was deemed profane and heretical, 
and their eyes were wilfully closed against the un- 
alterable truth, that the church of Christ cannot per- 
manently stand on any other foundation than the 
Gospel of Christ.' 



Chapter VIII. 

Eastern Church a witness to the last against Roman pretence of 
papal supremacy — Progress of the Turks— Truce of Belgrade, 
lm — Treachery of the Christians and their defeat at Varna — 
Advance on Constantinople — The city is besieged and taken by 
Mahomet II., 1453— Death of Constantine Palseologus, the last 
Emperor— Greek Church spreads over all Russia — Spread of 
Greek literature — Fall of Constantinople compared to fall of 
Jerusalem — Crusade proposed by Pius II. in Council of Mantua, 
1459 — -Death of Pius at Ancona, 1464 — Character of succeeding 
popes — Alexander VI. dies of a poison prepared for his car- 
dinals — Mustering of the champions of reform — Luther and 
Loyola (born 1483), types of the approaching conflict. 

The Turks had long been advancing upon the eastern 
borders of Europe ; and the event was hastening on 
which put an end to the last remains of the Roman 
empire in the east. We have placed this event at the 
end of our present period, rather than carry down the 
latter to the end of the century, because the eastern 
empire is more or less connected with the eastern 
church; and the fate of the empire presents a favour- 



200 

able opportunity for reminding the reader, that the 
church in connexion with it was true to the last to her 
ancient principles of freedom and independence as it 
regards the pretence of papal supremacy. It is to be 
lamented, that partly through too easy a confidence in 
her position, partly through the lazy and degenerate 
habits of the people, their too great love of ease and of 
the subtleties of theological speculation, and, above all, 
through the remissness of the other Christian powers 
to whose alliance they trusted in the hour of danger, 
the metropolis of the Greeks should have irrecoverably 
fallen under the Ottoman power. But though in these 
respects she betrayed her weakness, and suffered for it, 
it is yet a satisfaction to see, that she had strength suf- 
ficient to maintain throughout the struggle the inde- 
pendence of her church ; and to this day that church 
continues to add her testimony to that of other and 
more strictly Protestant communities, against the un- 
warrantable assumptions of Home. 

The Turks, meanwhile, had signalized their progress 
by the taking of Adrianople, 1389, and by the yet more 
signal defeat of the allied armies of the Christians 
under Sigismund, at Nicopolis, in 1396. Belgrade, a 
fortress situated at the junction of the Danube and the 
Save, which the emperor had purchased of the prince 
of Servia as a convenient outpost to his Hungarian and 
Austrian dominions, held out longer under the brave 
Ekmmades, general of Ladislaus, king of Poland and 
Hungary. This general was twice successful in repulsing 
the enemy from the walls of Belgrade. The successes 
of Scanderheg in the mountains of Albania were also 
memorable. For a time, too, the Ottoman movements 
were impeded by the incursions of the Moguls under 
Tamerlane, a descendant of Tzenghis Khan. But this 
only tended to lull the Greeks into the greater, though a 
vain, security; and at length, through the perfidiousness 



CHRISTIANS DEFEATED AT VARNA. 201 

of the Christian powers, they pulled the long-impending 
ruin upon their own heads. 

Hunniades, in 1444, having compelled the sultan, 
Amurath II., to raise the siege of Belgrade, a truce was 
concluded between the contending armies, solemnly- 
stipulating a peace of ten years. The Turks, on the 
faith of the treaty, withdrew their forces into Asia; but 
an emissary of the pope (the same cardinal Ccesarini 
whom we saw presiding at the council of Basle) per- 
suaded Ladislaus that no faith was to be kept with 
infidels and heretics, and the opportunity was not to be 
lost of falling on the enemy unprepared, and driving 
him from the face of the land. 

All the Polish and Hungarian chiefs, except the 
brave Hunniades, suffered themselves to be carried away 
by this representation; but success was not destined to 
smile upon their perjured and unchristian counsels. 
The Christian armies, after an obstinate resistance, 
were signally defeated at Varna, in Moldavia, 1444 ; 
Ladislaus and the perfidious Julian being left among 
the slain. The battle on the side of the Ottomans had 
been led by Amurath, who had already resigned the 
sceptre to his son Mahomet II., but whose impatience 
to revenge the perfidy of the Christians drew him once 
more from his retreat. During the heat of the engage- 
ment, he held up the violated treaty to the eyes of his 
troops, when their ardour was beginning to slack, and, 
appealing to the God of heaven to take vengeance on 
the enemy, he thus led them to the signal victory which 
crowned the issue of the day. It is not surprising that 
the idea should now have inspired them of marching on 
the capital itself. Constantinople had once already, 
in 1396, for nearly ten years been besieged by Bajazet, 
father of Mahomet I., when the successes of Tamerlane 
called him away from that enterprise. But now Ma- 
homet II., the reigning sultan, and a youth of scarce 



202 TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

twenty-one years of age, determined once more to invest 
that fated capital by sea and land ; and after deeds of 
desperate valour, and a siege of fifty-three days, with 
an immense force of 300,000 men, and a powerful artil- 
lery, he entered the city; and the crescent waved vic- 
toriously from its walls, 1453. Constantine Palseologus, 
surnamed Dragases, the last emperor, was slain in the 
first onset; and thus was finally extinguished the 
eastern branch of the ancient Roman empire. The 
inhabitants were sold into slavery, and the churches 
converted into mosques ; but liberty of conscience was 
guaranteed to the Christians, and the Greeks were 
authorized to proceed to the election of a new patriarch. 
Constantinople became the seat of the Turkish empire; 
and Mahomet the Great (for so he was called) proved a 
fiber al patron of the arts and sciences, and threw open 
his capital to men of letters from every part of the 
world. 

It was boasted that pope Nicolas V. had predicted 
the downfal of the Eastern capital about three years 
before it happened, and that the event answered the 
prediction. The fact was, that, enraged at the ill success 
of the negotiations to bring over the Greeks to the com- 
munion at Rome, Nicolas threatened them with the 
divine displeasure ; in so doing, he hit upon the appli- 
cation to their case of the parable of the fig-tree, and 
this naturally led him to the three years there men- 
tioned as a metaphorical term for the day of grace. 
But those who should have had the sad example of the 
crusades before their eyes, and the utter failure of the 
Latin kingdom, under similar circumstances to the 
Greek, in the preceding centuries, and whose ears were 
still ringing with the defeats of Nicopolis and Varna, 
were not exactly the persons to glory in the instability 
of a rival throne and hierarchy. On the other side, to 
fall into the hands of the Turks was surely better than 



CONFUSION IN EUROPE. 203 

to succumb to the dominion of the popes, and to enlarge 
the bounds of an ecclesiastical tyranny already over* 
grown. And as a last consolation, we may refer to the 
fact, that the Greek church has acquired a stronger 
footing, and more considerable accessions, in the vast 
dominions of Russia, than ever she lost by the fall of 
Constantinople. To the rest of Europe the latter event 
was of service in promoting a taste for letters, and par- 
ticularly a study of the Greek literature, which was 
carried everywhere by learned Greeks expatriated from 
their country. In a short time there was no consider- 
able city or university in which some one or more of 
the Greeks were not employed as teachers in some 
branch of the arts. 

We have reserved for the last place, what cannot be 
well overlooked — that the fall of this branch of the 
empire may be fairly regarded as a just judgment of 
God against the sins of the people; and, like the similar 
fate of Jerusalem in earlier times, and of even more 
ancient cities, it might have been averted if the warn- 
ings that had been sent had been improved to the ad- 
vancement of pure religion and virtue. Sismondi records 
that a rumour was spread at Rome, soon after the cap- 
ture of Constantinople, that the same Mahomet who 
had conquered the eastern metropolis was resolved 
to enter also as conqueror the ancient capital of the 
world, in order to ' destroy there what he called the 
idolatry of the Christians. 1 

The remainder of the century was passed in events 
of little immediate importance. The general conster- 
nation consequent upon the taking of the eastern 
capital seemed for a time to paralyse the efforts of the 
western sovereigns and people against the Turks. 
Diets were held at Ratisbon and Frankfort, but no 
decisive measures taken. The Turks took Otranto, and 
still hovered on the frontiers of Italy and the Austrian 



204 NEPOTISM OF POPES. 

dominions. Among the popes the most zealous for a 
second crusade was Pius II., who at the council of 
Mantua (1459), rebuked the indifference of the sove- 
reigns, and, having obtained the promise of an army 
and other supplies, bravely offered to conduct the 
war in person. But five years afterwards, when he was 
about to fulfil this promise, and to set out in person at 
the head of an expedition, he was suddenly cut off by 
■ % ; death, at Ancona, 1464. With all his courage, he was 
unfortunately stained with the bigotry and intolerance 
of his age ; and though a man of learning, he revived 
the preposterous style and pretensions of a Boniface. 
But what must we think of the blind infatuation of suc- 
ceeding pontiffs, one of whom,* when he saw the brave 
Corvinus defending with success and valour the borders 
of Hungary, called him away from that field to turn 
his hand against the unfortunate Hussites in Bohemia? 
For seven years he employed him on that odious ser- 
vice ; but the Bohemians survived their frequent per- 
secutions, and took a prominent part in the reformation 
of the next age. In private as in public life, there was 
little in this century to quote in favour of the popes. 
The new name of nepotism was even invented, to de- 
signate the prodigality with which the money of the 
church was lavished on his relatives by Sixtus IV.f 
Yet this must have been trifling compared to the scan- 
dal occasioned to the church, when they saw the popes 
with families of their own, which they unblushingly ac- 
knowledged, J though, it is needless to say, they despised 




* Paul II. 

t The order of the Popes from Nicolas V. (in whose pontificate 
Constantinople was taken) to the end of the century was as follows: 
Calixtus III. (Alphonso Borgia), 1455; Pius II., 1458; Paul II., 
1464; Sixtus IV., 1471; Innocent VIII., 1484; Alexander VI. 
(Roderic Borgia, and nephew by his mother to Calixtus III.), 1492. 

X Innocent VIII. acknowledged seven children ; Alexander VI. 
was the father of a numerous family. 



EFFECTS OF PRINTING. 205 

the ties of wedlock, and affected to abhor an ' honour- 
able estate ordained of God/ The name of Borgia 
became proverbial for every vice that can degrade man- 
kind ; and, both by friend and foe, Alexander VL is 
quoted as a prodigy of licentiousness and every kind of 
depravity. Through the intrigues of the detestable 
Alexander, says Sismondi, to promote his son, Csesar 
Borgia, more murders, more assassinations, more glaring 
acts of perfidy, were committed within a short space in 
the states of the church, than during the annals of the 
most depraved monarchies. He died of drinking, by 
mistake, a poison which he had prepared for one of the 
cardinals, his guest, 1503. ^1 With the death of Maho- 
met the Great, in 1481, the fear of the Turks subsided 
for a time, and they began to take their place among 
the accredited governments of Europe. 

Some was called upon to encounter a more resolute, 
if not a more subtle and dangerous foe, than either 
Greek or Turk. The invention of printingf had put a 
weapon into the hands of the reformers, which gradually 
enabled them to lay open the secrets of the prison- 
house ; and, by throwing in the light of the Scriptures, 
to expose to view the scandalous deformities of the papal 
system. It was, indeed, impossible that the crude and 
abrupt termination of the assemblies of Basle and Con- 
stance should have given satisfaction to reflecting minds. 
Questions had, indeed, been opened there, but they had 
not been determined. And what the fathers of the 
councils had left undecided, now anxiously engaged the 



I C* It was this Alexander, who, on the discoveries of Columbus 
bemg announced to him by Ferdinand, with an amusing sense of 
his omnipotence dashed his pen across the globe, and conferred the 
half of it upon the kings of Qastile for ever, together with all that 
had been of late discovered ! J 

t Ascribed by some to Jonn Guttenberg, of Strasburg, 1440 ; by 
others to Coster, of Haarlem, 1430. Guttenberg was the inventor 
of the metal types. 

T 



206 LUTHER AND LOYOLA. 

minds of others, and became the subject of discussion, 
as well among individuals as in universities and public 
bodies. The imperialists and papists — the reformers and 
anti-reformers of Basle and of Constance, represented 
parties which were destined to stand in bolder anta- 
gonism, and be brought out in stronger relief, every day. 
Luther and Loyola were born in the same year, 1483. 
They were types of parties which, hand to hand, were 
destined to contest the great question of reform : the 
one taking the word of God and apostolic and primitive 
practice for their guide — the other pertinaciously cling- 
ing to the developments of the schools, and the per- 
verted traditions of men. The favourite weapons of 
the latter were the extermination of heretics, and the 
fires of the inquisition. So late as 1469, Ferdinand 
introduced this bloody institution into Spain, and in 
four years no less than six thousand people perished 
under the hands of the inquisitor in that country. The 
century closed with Maximilian on the throne of the 
empire ; and it is with no reluctance that the historian 
turns to the brighter times which were in store for the 
cause of reform, and thanks God for the deliverance of 
so great a part of Europe from the bondage of a cruel 
and corrupt combination against the rights and liberties 
of the Christian church. 






207 



Chapter IX. 

Enthusiasm of some early Reformers — Gerhard, and ■ Dispensation 
of the Spirit,' or ' Third Age' — The * Introduction to the Ever- 
lasting Gospel' — Dulcinus, and Apostoli — Peter John Oliva — 
Jerome Savonarola — His preaching, remarkable character and 
death, 1498— Concluding considerations: I. On the progress of 
reform up to this period ; II. On its prospects after it. — J. Theo- 
logians of that day compared to the Jewish doctors in the time 
of our Lord: vehement for Church Unity according to their 
mistaken theory of it ; blind to real errors— Indiscretion of 
Reformers accounted for. II Lessons to be derived from the 
late schism, when the church was left without a head or with 
several —Ancient prejudices shaken — Effects of printing in 
multiplying the means of information — Juster notions of the 
Catholic church — Condition of churches that resulted. 

It remains to mention a few last efforts of some nobler 
spirits in this century to awaken the church to a sense 
of the real evils which oppressed her, and of her duty in 
endeavouring to reform them* Among this number we 
shall scarcely venture to include that large portion of 
the Franciscan fraternity, who, adhering to the stricter 
vows and poverty of the order, fell a prey to many 
fanatical whims and fancies. Such was the strange 
history (1250) of one Gerhard, a Spiritual Franciscan 
(as his order was called), and author of a work entitled 
the Introduction to the Everlasting Gospel, This latter, 
again, was the title of a production falsely ascribed 
to one Joachim, abbot of Flora, in Calabria, and a 
writer of considerable reputation. Like the work of 
Gerhard, it contained certain predictions of a coming 
' reformation by the sword, 5 which was to destroy the 
1 Babylon' of Eome ; but the peculiar part of it was 
a new theory of what he called the third dispensation 
of the spirit. According to this theory, the dispensa- 
tion of Christ was held to be temporary and imperfect $ 
it was to be superseded, after a continuance of 1260 
years, by a new and more spiritual condition ; and the 



208 SAVONAROLA. 

latter, it was maintained, had been introduced to the 
world by St. Francis ; who was the ' angel' mentioned 
in the Apocalypse, chap. xiv. 6, 'flying in the mid- 
heaven, and having the everlasting Gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth.' These opinions 
were, by others, carried to much greater extremes ; 
as, to omit more painful examples,* by Dulcinus, 
leader of the small sect of the Apostoli, who expiated 
his follies by a cruel death.f It is easy to smile at 
these phenomena ; but there was one thing about them 
by no means contemptible — viz., the evident symptoms 
they gave of a strong prevailing desire for some great 
and searching change. Many among the Spirituals 
there were, who, without partaking of their more whim- 
sical notions, wrote very learned commentaries, more 
especially on the Apocalypse, wherein they exposed 
and censured with great freedom the corruptions of the 
Homish church. Peter John Oliva (1290) is deserving 
of particular mention in this class. 

But we pass on to the mention of one to whose 
memory we ought to consecrate the close of our present 
period. Jerome Savonarola, born at Ferrara, 1452, 
and afterwards a monk of the order of St. Dominic, in 
Florence, distinguished himself by the intrepidity with 
which he denounced at once the ecclesiastical and poli- 
tical abuses of the governments in Italy. The descent 
of Charles VIII. upon that country, he fearlessly de- 
clared to be a signal judgment of the Almighty upon a 
degenerate people and a reprobate church. He was a 



* Mosheim tells us that one * Wilhelmina, an infatuated Bohemian 
woman, persuaded herself, and then many others, that the Holy- 
Spirit had assumed human nature in her person ; she had many- 
followers, and after her death was honoured with the greatest vene- 
ration.' Mosh., Cent. xiii. p. 2, ch. v. 

t He was torn limb from limb and burnt. Four Spirituals were 
burnt at Marseilles, 1318 ; and Mosheim computes, that from 1318 
to 1362, no fewer than 2000 of that body shared the same fate. 



REFORMERS GAINING GROUND. 209 

man of eminent piety, and aimed more at purifying the 
morals than the doctrines of the Eomish communion. 
His preaching wrought so upon the people, that all 
rose at his bidding, and received with open arms the 
king of France as the appointed executioner of the 
divine decrees. But what was of more importance, 
Savonarola so unreservedly exposed the vices and cor- 
ruptions of the church of Rome (which he held to be 
the Babylon of the Apocalypse), that it drew on him 
the displeasure of the pope, Alexander VI., who deter- 
mined to bring him to trial. One Francis of Apulia, a 
Franciscan in the interest of Alexander, offered to 
decide the case by an ordeal of fire. A blazing pile 
was accordingly prepared in the Piazza del Popolo, in 
Florence, through the midst of which, for a space of 
eighty feet, the two champions were to walk. Such 
was the enthusiasm of the people for the monk of their 
city, that innumerable offers were pressed upon him to 
be his proxy in the fiery trial. Eventually a Domi- 
nican friar, Dominic Buonvicino, appeared for Savona- 
rola ; the Franciscan sustaining the ordeal in his own 
person. The Dominican marched to the burning pile, 
holding in his hand a consecrated wafer, when, sud- 
denly, the Franciscan demurring to this profanation of 
the sacrament, a dispute ensued which so irritated the 
people, that they dispersed to their homes and declared 
Savonarola an impostor. And from that time his 
credit began to fall in the popular estimation. The 
pope took advantage of the favourable moment, and 
procured the condemnation of this celebrated man, 
who, with two other monks, his friends, was impri- 
soned, and burnt alive May 23, 1498. 

We shall conclude this portion of the history with 
a few general observations, and — ■ 

I. As to the extent to which reforms had been 
hitherto carried. According to the phrase of the day, 
t2 



210 INADEQUACY OF PAST REFORMS. 

the necessity of some ' reform both in the head and 
members' was universally felt and acknowledged. But 
of what had it hitherto consisted? and what were 
the questions to which attention had been principally 
directed ? To a disputed succession of the popes — the 
amount of their dues— the places where indulgences 
might be sold— the disputed jurisdictions of secular 
and regular* — or to some such matters of comparative 
indifference. It is astonishing in what trifling minutiae 
the men of that generation were content to occupy their 
minds and expend their time. A favourite thesis with 
the Greek church was on the nature of the light which 
encircled our blessed Lord at the transfiguration ! some 
asserting its subsistence from all eternity, others re- 
garding it as produced at the time and for that parti- 
cular occasion. The divines of Basle had gravely pro- 



* Great heats were excited at different times about the Mendi- 
cants interfering with the rights of the parochial, or secular clergy, 
in the administration of the sacraments. Divers decrees on the 
subject led at last to the compact made by Martin IV. (1282), per- 
mitting the Mendicants to hear confessions, but subject to the con- 
dition that confession be also made to the parish priest once every 
year, according to the canon of the fourth Lateran council. The 
administration of the other sacraments was denied them — a decree 
afterwards reversed by Sixtus IV., 1473. But the strife continued 
notwithstanding these and many other decisions of the popes. 
"While we make these remarks we would add, * It is not to uncover 
the nakedness of the Roman-catholic church, that the Protestant 
historian dwells on its peccant parts, but simply because the subject 
leads him to develope those defects which paved the way to its 
eventual visitation, not to recount the virtues which, in spite of such 
defects, preserved it untouched so long. At the same time, he 
naturally feels some satisfaction in vindicating the reformed church 
from a comparison by which it is thought to suffer, and which 
represents it as full of discord and division, whilst the church before 
the reformation was at unity with itself. Such was not, we see, the 
case. Time has indeed hushed all reports of the bickerings of men 
who lived three or four centuries ago, and it may be invidious to 
awake the echo ; but tenderness to the dead must not betray us 
into injustice to the living, and, however error may be concealed, it 
must not be consecrated by the grave.' — Blunt's Reformation in 
England, chap. 2. 



REAL NATURE OF COMPLAINT. 211 

nounced on the immaculate conception of the blessed 
Virgin Mary ; those of Constance had declared for the 
communicating of the laity in one kind ; while both 
had asserted that the Divine person of our Lord is 
wholly and bodily present in either element. Thus it 
was with them as with the Jews in the time of oui 
Saviour — 'they strained out a gnat and swallowed a 
camel;' they busied themselves in theological and cri- 
tical subtleties, and neglected the weightier matters of 
the law. They wandered from the pure word of God, 
and fondly adhered to the vain traditions of men. Pope 
was, indeed, against pope, and council against council ; 
and these parties respectively were continually arrayed 
against each other; but in truth there was little in 
point of principle to choose between them. Neither 
pope nor council had as yet abandoned the mistaken 
idea, that the unity of the church consisted in its abso- 
lute uniformity under the one head of the pope of 
Home. And what an uniformity ! If the doctrine and 
discipline of the church, as it then was, had been stereo- 
typed (so to speak), to the use of all posterity, we should 
have been bound to the f immaculate conception 5 (de- 
tracting, as it does, from the human nature of the 
Redeemer, and transferring to the mother a great part 
of the glory which belongs wholly to the Divinity) ; 
we should have been bound to the ' sale of indulgences' 
(the remission of sins for so much money), — to the 
denial of the cup to the laity (the subtraction of half a 
sacrament), — to ' papal supremacy' (a figment of the 
dark ages), — to the ' prohibition of the Scriptures in 
the vulgar tongue' — to 'saint- worship,' and ' mariolatry,' 
-—and a thousand other legacies from Rome — and 
bound to them for ever ! These were the real sores 
under which the church was labouring ; and to remove 
or correct them was the great want of the age, and the 
true business of reform. But the remedial measures 



2i2 ABUSE NOT ARGUMENT. 

with which people were, or were obliged to be, con- 
tented in the fifteenth century, were far from reaching 
to the root of the evil. The cause was hindered by the 
indiscretion of some of its advocates, as well as the 
direct opposition of its enemies. And this was made 
worse by the malicious, but favourite, device of im- 
puting to the reformers the very worst crimes and 
excesses. JNot to mention the grave charges of Pauli- 
cian and Manichean heresy, they were studiously 
confounded with the wildest enthusiasts, with Flagel- 
lants,* and Dancers, and Adamites, and Brethren of 
the free spirit, and a host of others* And to appear in 
such company was enough to damage the best of causes. 
But were it ever so true that the reformers sometimes 
took part with those deluded people, their enemies 
might have remembered that it was from among their 
own ranks that the latter sprung. It was no new 
thing to witness such occasional excesses : in fact, no 
great popular movement has ever taken place without 
them ; how then was it likely the cause of the reformers 
should be the only exception ? The recoil from that 
state of acquiescence in which men had long slumbered, 
was sure to lead, at first, into the opposite extremes ; 
and it has been well and elegantly remarked, that c it is 
one of the curses inflicted on mankind by flagrant and 
inveterate abuse, that the momentum required for its 
overthrow is such as frequently to carry the assailant 



* The Flagellants were a, set of men who roamed about stripped to 
the waist and marked with red crosses. They met twice a day to 
endure flagellation, or scourging, which they considered would serve 
them instead of baptism and all other ordinances of the church. 
They existed in great numbers in the fourteenth century. The 
Dancers, like the Ranters and Jumpers of modern times, took the 
opposite mode of displaying their enthusiasm. See Mosheim, Cent, 
xiv. p. 2, ch. v. The Adamites insisted on perfect nudity. The 
Brethren of the free spirit rejected all commOn ways of devotion, 
and made their profession of religion a cover of the most degrading 
obscenity. See a full account of the sect, Mosh. Cent. xix. p. 2* 
ch. v. §§ 9, 10, 11. 



INFALLIBILITY EXPOSED. 213 

forward beyond the boundaries of wisdom and of 
safety.'* But the ways of Providence are inscrutable ; 
and if we turn — 

II. To the brighter side, we shall find the prospect 
every day improving. If the course of events was not 
always such as human reason might have looked for, it 
was yet effectually working out the desired end, by 
means which seemed best to the divine wisdom. The 
redemption of man was not accomplished by agencies 
which in themselves were good and laudable : why 
should it appear surprising if, in the reformation of the 
church, the same law was exemplified ? When Boni- 
face was opposed by Philip of Prance, or Benedict XIII. 
by Charles VI., there might have been evil passions 
at work on the side of the sovereigns, as well as that of 
the popes. Neither at that time, nor during the sub- 
sequent troubles of the great western schism, do we 
quote the example of the sovereigns, or of other actors 
in the scene, as perfect. But we see, in effect, that 
the church and people of Prance were for many years 
without any spiritual head, while in other parts of 
Christendom they had two or three heads at a time !f 
a spectacle, one would think, enough to startle them 
at once into better and more correct ideas of the 
unity of the church under its one, only, and spiritual 
head. Surely all this time they were learning a great 
lesson; and that lesson was, that the church might 
very well subsist, and might perform all its functions, 
without any such head as they then imagined neces- 
sary. How again must old ideas and prejudices have 
been shocked, when councils were seen sitting in judg- 
ment on the infallible chiefs of the church ! assuming 



* Le Bas' Life of Wickliffe. 
f In the homely language of Wickliffe, who lived at the time, 
4 the head of Anti-Christ was cloven in twain, and the two parts 
were made to fight against each other.' 



214 NEW SOURCES OF INFOEMATION. 

their functions! despising their anathemas! and 
freely censuring their vices ! Yet many such scenes 
were destined to occur, before the eyes of men were 
fully opened, and before the church was aroused 
to vindicate the ancient privileges of her primitive 
constitution. The frequent and angry controversies 
of the monks, and particularly of the rival orders 
of St. Francis and Dominic, if they were of no 
other use, yet accustomed men's ears to the sound of 
theological strife, and practically showed that some- 
thing of discord is not incompatible with the boast of 
unity. And i f the councils failed to provide the remedy, 
they at least pointed out many of the evils. The con- 
fessions that were then made, were as much as the 
most zealous reformer could desire ; and they served 
at least to exonerate the latter from the charge of 
malicious and wilful misrepresentation. 

The art of printing and the multiplication of the 
copies of the Scripture powerfully aided the new 
opinions. The co-existence, indeed, side by side, of 
the pure word of Grod and of the flagrant departures 
from that word, in many common practices of the 
church, it was scarcely possible should continue much 
longer. Like the thong of cords in the hands of Him 
who impersonated that word, it was sooner or later to 
drive out the tables of the money-changers and all 
other defilements from the temple* As the sources, 
too, of general information multiplied, — as the past and 
primitive history of the church became more frequently 
studied, and the knowledge of it no longer confined to 
the few, — the public mind became gradually disabused 
of many false and erroneous impressions. Scruples 
and aspirations, which had often agitated the minds of 
other generations, and which force, more than reason, 
had silenced, were now revealed and brought more 
fairly into view. And the consequence was, what 



THE COMING REFORMATION. 215 

might reasonably have been anticipated. Men began 
at last to see that the church of Rome, with all its pre- 
tensions, was at most but a branch, as the churches of 
the east were other branches, of the one Catholic 
church ; that to clear away the decayed parts was not 
to kill the tree. They saw that to attack the rubbish 
and corruption which, like some unhealthy fungus, had 
overgrown the upper parts of the stem, was no dispa- 
ragement to the old trunk of apostolic and primitive 
times. This they acknowledged still to be sound at 
the root, because ' rooted and grounded in Christ,' and 
destined, by proper nurture and pruning, to ( grow up 
into Him in all things who is the true head.' 5 * They 
saw that, under correction from Scripture and primi- 
tive usage, it was competent to each church and nation 
to reform itself, and to take the regulation of its affairs 
into its own hands. But perhaps the most favourable 
sign of all was the increased attention that was paid to 
the study of the Scriptures. The sacred text found 
numerous commentators : and these adhered much 
more to the plain and grammatical sense than had 
been usual since the writers of the first six centuries.f 
Such were the progressive steps by which the way 
was prepared for the great Reformation in the sixteenth 
century. When at length that Eeformation broke out, 
it fell like a cataract intercepting the course of some 
mighty river, dividing and breaking up its waters 
into many minor streams, which henceforth ran their 



* Eph. iv. xv. 
t Dupin, himself a Romanist, says, ' True divinity, founded upon 
Scripture and tradition, began to be cultivated in this century by 
the most able divines, and treated in a clear, solid, and distinct 
manner, free from obscure terms and rugged scholastic questions: 
Peter Dailli, John Gerson, and Nicolas Clemangis, showed the example. 
Paul de Burgos, Jerome of St. Fox and others, studied the literal 
sense of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures and resolved the principal 
difficulties. Dupin, Hist. Eccles, Cent. xv. 



216 UNITY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY. 

different courses to the ocean, taking perhaps the tinge 
of the soil through which they pass, but alike partaking 
of the virtues of the parent spring. The fanatic may- 
think to reduce them to one uniform channel again ; 
but the streams seem likely to run on, not mixing yet 
not conflicting, and all in their measure spreading 
plenty and fertility around. The description of the 
literal Eden, which was ' watered/ we read, 'by a 
river,' flowing in one single channel, ■ but parted thence 
into four streams,'* may be applied, figuratively, to the 
condition of the church militant. ISTot till we have 
recovered the happy state from which we have fallen, 
are we authorized to expect that the ' parted streams* 
will re-unite. On this side of the second Eden, the 
pastures will be more or less divided from one another 
by the different rills, which at once feed and separate 
them. And not till we arrive at the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem, will there be ■ one fold and one shepherd,' and one 
' pure river of water, clear as crystal, proceeding out 
of the throne of God and of the Lamb.'f 



* Gen. ii. v. 10. t Rev. xxii. v. 1. 



217 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF GERMAN EMPERORS. 
A.D. 1273 A.D. 1493. 



Rudolph of Hapsburg .1273 

Adolph of Nassau . . . 1291 

Albert I. of Hapsburg . .1298 
Henry VII. of Luxemburg 1308 

Lewis V. of Bavaria . .1314 

Charles IV. of Bohemia .1346 

Wincislaus, ditto . . .1378 



Robert, Count Palatine . 1410 
Sigismund of Bohemia . .1411 

House of Austria, 

Albert II 143S 

Frederic III 1440 

Maximilian 1 1493 



THE EASTERN EMPERORS, COTEMPORARY WITH 
CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS, HAVE 
BEEN VERY LITTLE ALLUDED TO IN THE HIS- 
TORY ; BUT WE SUBJOIN A LIST OF THEIR NAMES. 



Nicephorus 
Leo Armenius 
Michael Thraulus 
Theophilus 
Michael III. 
Basilius Macedo 
Leo II. 
Alexander 
Constantine 
Romanus 

Nicephorus Phocas 
John Zimisces 
Basilius II. 
Constantine II. 
Romanus Argyropilus 
Michael Paphlago 
Michael Calaphates 
Constantine Monomachus 
Theodora Porphyrogeneta 
Michael Strato 
Isacius Comnenus 
Constantine Ducas 
Romanus Diogenes 
Nicephorus Botoniates 
Alexus Comnenus 
Calo- Johannes 



Emanuel 
Alexius 
Andronicus 
Isacius Angelus 
Alexius Comnenus 
Alexius — succeeded by Latin 
emperors. 

Baldwin 

Henry 

Peter 

Robert 

Baldwin II. — end of Latin. 

Michael Palaeologus 
Andronicus Palaeologus 
Andronicus Palaeologus II. 
Johannes Palaeologus 
Calo-Johannes II. 
Calo- Johannes III. 
Andronicus 
Manuel Junior 
Constantine Dragases 

Under him Constantinople 
taken by the Turks, 1453. 



218 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ROMAN POPES. 
Continued from Part III. 



Benedict XI 1303 

Clement V 1305 

John XXII 1316 

Benedict XII 1334 

Clement VI 1342 

Innocent VI. . . . i .1352 

Urban V 1362 

Gregory XI 1370 

Urban VI.* . . . .1378 

Boniface IX 1389 

Innocent VII 1404 

Gregory XII 1406 



Alexander V 1409 

John XXni. ..... 1410 

Martin V.* 1417 

Eugenius IV 1431 

Nicolas V 1447 

Callixtus III 1455 

Pius II 1458 

Paul II 1464 

Sextus IV 1471 

Innocent VIII 1484 

Alexander VI 1492 



* During this forty years, and more, the succession of Popes was 
disputed. The rival successors were Clement VII. and Bene- 
dict XIII. A.D. 1378—1424. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

OF CHIEF EVENTS, 

FROM FIRST TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



44. Martyrdom of St. James the Greater. 

68. Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

71. Destruction of Jerusalem. 
107. Martyrdom of Ignatius in the third persecution. 
167. Martyrdom of Justin Martyr and Polycarp. 
201. Martyrdom of Irenasus and Victor, bishop of Kome, 

250. The Decian persecution; Martyrdom of St. Alban. 

251. Schism of Novatian. 

303. Diocletian persecution, the eleventh and last. 

311. Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage, and Schism of the Donatists. 

313. Constantine enters Kome in triumph, proclaiming liberty to 

the Christians. 

314. Council of Aries. 

325. Council of Nice, or First General Council. 

340. Death of Eusebius, the historian, and bishop of Csesarea. 

370. Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea. 

381. First of Constantinople, or Second General Council. 

385. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. 

395. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. 

398. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople. 

402. Heresy of Pelagius. 

417. Zosimus Pope. 

420. Death of Jerome. 

430. Death of Augustine. 

431. Council ofEphesus, or Third General Council. 

432. St. Patrick, the < apostle of Ireland.' 

451. Council of Chalcedon, or Fourth General Council. 

461. Death of Leo the Great. 

526. St. Benedict, of Nursia. 

553. Second of Constantinople , or Fifth General Council. 

590. St. Columb, abbot of Iona. 

596. Mission of Augustin, the monk, from Gregory the Great to 

the Anglo-Saxons. 
606. Boniface III. receives title of ■ Universal Bishop' from Phocas. 
611. Mahomet. 

680. Third of Constantinople, or Sixth General Council. 
692. Quinisext, or Council of Trullo. 
726. Bede. 
730. Home rebeh against Emperor Leo Isauricus, under Gregory II. 



220 CONCISE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

754. Council of Constantinople ; according to the Greeks the SEVENTH 
General, against the images. 

756. Conquest of Lombardy by Pepin ; States of Exarchate trans- 
ferred to Home. 

774. Confirmation of the above by Charlemagne. 

786. Second Council of Nice ; according to the Latins the Seventh 
General. 

794. Council of Francfort, convened by Charlemagne, and against 
the images. 

824. Council of Paris, convened by Charlemagne, and against the 
images. 

827. Claude, bishop of Turin, and reformer. 

844. Rabanus, archbishop of May ence ; Ansgarius, first archbishop 
of Bremen and Hamburg ; Ratram and Radbert. 

S54. Godeschalcus and Hincmar, bishop of Rheims. 

85 S. Pope Nicolas 1. 

869. Council of Constantinople; according to the Latins EIGHTH 
General, against Photius. 

885. Alfred. 

955. Otho the Great, of Saxony. 

965. Dunstan. 

1003. Sylvester II. proposes crusades. 

1073. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury ; Berenger, and contro- 
versy on the real Presence. 
1085. Death of Gregory VII. (Hildebrand). 
1095. Urban II., and Councils of Placentia and Clermont; Peter of 

Amiens. 
1099. Jerusalem taken from the Turks; beginning of Latin King- 
dom in Syria; First Crusade. 

1122. Calixtus II. and council of Worms. 

1123. First Lateran; according to the Latins Ninth General 

Council. 
1139. Second Lateran ; according to the Latins the Tenth General. 
1147. St. Bernard and Second Crusade. 
1154. Peter Lombard. 
1172. Death of Becket. 
1179. Third Lateran ; according to the Latins Eleventh General 

f Council. 

1179. Bull of pope Adrian, pretending to convey over Ireland to 

Henry II. 
1182. Third Crusade under Richard Cceur de Lion and Philip of 

France. 
1187. Jerusalem retaken by Saladin. 
1204. Rise of Dominican and Franciscan orders. 
1215. Fourth Lateran; according to the Latins TVELrTH GENERAL 

Council. 
1219. Latins take Constantinople ; end of Fourth Crusade. 
1229. Truce of Frederic, and close of Fifth Crusade ; the first 

board of Inquisition at Thoulouse. 
1-43. Grostete, bishop of Lincoln, and reformer. 



CONCISE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 221 

1245. First Council of Lyons; according to the Latins the Thirteenth 

General. 
1254. End of Sixth Crusade under Louis IX. 

1270. Death of St. Louis. 

1271. Taking of Ptolemais by the Turks, and end oe Crusades. 
1274. Second Council of Lyons; according to the Latins FOURTEENTH 

General. 
1276. Eoger Bacon. 
1282. The Sicilian Vespers. 
1300. First Jubilee at Rome. 

1303. Philippe le Bel, Boniface VIII. 

1304. Dante. 

1305. Beginning of recess of Avignon. 

1311. Council of Vienne; according to the Latins the FIFTEENTH 

General. 
1334. William of Occam, Marsilius of Padua, reformers, 
1371. John Wickliffe. 
1378. Urban VI., Clement VII., beginning of 'Great Western 

Schism.' 
1409. Council of Pisa. 
1414. Council of Constance; according to the Latins the Sixteenth 

General. 
1431. Council of Basle; according to the Latins the Seventeenth 

General. 
1464. Death of Pius II. 
1471. SixtusIV. 
1483. Luther and Loyola born. 
1498. Death of Savonarola. 
1512. The Fifth Lateran; according to the Latins the EIGHTEENTH 

General. 



v2 



QUESTIONS. 



PAET THE FIEST. 

CHAPTER I. 

From whom did the Christians at first experience the most deter- 
mined opposition ? Did the Church nevertheless increase ? Can 
you name any remarkable conversions? The Church comprised 
both Jews and Gentiles : by what term is this union expressed ? 
By what event was the hand of God signally displayed in the 
punishment of the apostate Jews ? What last struggle did they 
make, after the fall of Jerusalem ? With whose history is the nar- 
rative in the Acts of the Apostles chiefly occupied ? What became 
of St. Paul ? What were the chief destinations of the other Apostles ? 
What authority have we for considering that St. Paul visited the 
British isles ? What was the mode of St. James' death ? and of 
St. John ? 

CHAPTER II. 

How did the Apostles usually proceed in the settlement of new 
churches ? What were the regular orders in the ministry at that 
time ? Was there any other besides these ? You say there was 
another class called the 'prophets,' what do you understand by the 
term * prophesying' ? Was the title of « bisbop' confined at first to 
the first order in the ministry ? If not, was there any distinction 
of office? How do we know this? In what shape were the doc- 
trines of the Gospel usually preached by the Apostles ? The Apo- 
stolic fathers speak sometimes of a ' rule of faith,' what do you un- 
derstand by this term ? Are the liturgies ascribed to St. James and 
St. Mark to be accounted genuine? Are the so-called 'Apostolic 
constitutions and canons' genuine ? What was the practice of the 
Apostles as it regards the setting apart of fixed times and places 
for divine worship ? Mention from Scripture some spot that appears 
to have been very early hallowed by the special choice of our Lord 
himself? Why did they keep holy the first day of the week, instead 
of the seventh ? What were the elements made use of in the Supper 
of the Lord? And how was Baptism administered ? What autho- 
rity is there in Scripture for the rite of Confirmation ? What was 
the principal fast in the primitive Church ? Why called the 
' quadragesimal fast' ? What did they call their ' stations' ? Have 
we any authority in Scripture for denying Christian communion to 






QUESTIONS. 223 

those who may be guilty of open and scandalous sin ? Repeat a 
few of the passages which you may remember on this head ? When 
offenders were thus punished, by what name was it called ? What 
do we read of the duty or practice of confession ? How are we 
instructed to behave towards our brethren who have departed in 
the true faith ? Are we to pray to them ? Are we to pay super- 
stitious reverence to the places of their burial ? Do you remember 
a remark of Bishop Mant ? 

CHAPTER III. 

What do you mean by the Ante-Nicene Church ? There are five 
* Apostolic Fathers,' as they are called, can you give their names ? 
What form of unbelief next assailed the Church ? Who were the 
G?iostics, and why so called ? Whom do we read of in the Acts who 
is reputed to have been of this sect ? Who was Menander ? And 
what story is related of Cerinthus ? Who were Valentinus, Satur- 
ninus and Basilides? Can you name some other leaders among 
the Gnostics ? What other form of opposition arose ? Of what 
school were Cehus, Porphyry, and Plotinus. What were the views 
of Ammonius Saccas f Give some account of Origen. What error 
began to be propagated by Manes ? and by Montanus f Who were 
the Ascetics f And who the Encratites, or Continentes f Who the 
Ebionites and Nazarenes ? What was Sabellianism f and with 
whom did it begin ? Who were notorious teachers of it, besides 
Sabellius? Who was Paul of Samosataf Of what were Novatus 
and Novatian guilty ? What was the elate of this schism ? By 
what name did the orthodox Christians begin to distinguish them- 
selves from the heterodox ? And what were their ' letters of com- 
munion' ? Were Catholic and Roman the same, or were they 
necessarily connected ? Name any example in point. 

CHAPTER IV. 

What signal persecutions arose ? In which of these did St. Peter 
and St. Paul suffer martyrdom ? In which of them did Ignatius ? 
Polycarp? Justin Martyr ? and Irenaeus ? Trajan, it is said, wished 
to protect the Christians ; but what was his timid pohcy ? What 
was the consequence? Did Adrian reverse or temper that policy? 
What mitigation of former edicts took place under Antoninus Pius? 
About one hundred years from the time of Antoninus, a fresh perse- 
cution broke out under Decius, a.d. 249 — what emperors in the 
course of this time had been more or less favourable to the Christians ? 
Was the Decian persecution the last ? What was its character ? 
What were some of its results ? When did the tenth and last per- 
secution break out ? Was the motive of the emperors for perse- 
cuting the Christians entirely of a religious nature? What was 
the special subject that alarmed Domitian, and relate the anecdote ? 
Who was at this time a famous British martyr ? 



224 QUESTIONS. 



CHAPTER V. 

What event brought Constantine to the throne ? Whom had he 
defeated, when he entered Rome in triumph ? By what miraculous 
appearance do we read that his faith was confirmed on the eve of 
the engagement ? What were the remarkable ends of Galerius and 
Maximin f And what was the issue of the last three hundred years 
of struggle to the Christian church? What Christian writers or 
Fathers rank next to those of the Apostolic age ? Who was Ter- 
tullian? For what was Eusebius remarkable? Name the most 
admired Christian Fathers of the fourth century. Did Rome con- 
tinue the capital city of the empire ? Is the ' donation of Constan- 
tine' a genuine and authentic document? Who sat upon the 
emperor's right hand at the council of Nice? How often were 
synods called ? And by what law ? 

CHAPTER VI. 

How was Easter-Day determined in the Calendar ? Were the 
churches divided on this point ? Who took part in the debate ? 
You said that scandalous offenders were punished by ' excommuni- 
cation,' into how many kinds did this begin to be divided ? What 
was the distinction between penance and repentance, and give some 
account of both ? Those who fell away in the time of persecution 
were called 'the lapsed,' how were they usually treated? Who 
were the ' libellatici,' the ' thurificati,' &c. ? What was the view of 
the Novatians on this head ? Do you remember Justin Martyr's 
account of Christian baptism? Were infants also baptized? 
Were they dipped ? and what other ceremonies were occasionally 
observed? You mentioned a difference between the Roman, or 
Latin, and the Eastern churches on the subject of Easter-Day, 
can you mention another remarkable point on which they were 
disagreed? Could, then, the sacrament of baptism be repeated? 
Was that administered by heretics allowed? What distinction 
came to be made on this subject ? What account does Dr. Burton 
give of the primitive doctrine of the Millennium, and how it 
affected prayers for the dead? What were the speculations of 
Origen on this head? Had the Christians yet begun to pay ex- 
traordinary honours to the dead? And can such a practice be 
at all justified? Give some account of the order of Divine service ? 
Of how many divisions did each congregation consist ? Who were 
the ' Catechumens ?' the * Competentes,' the ' Energumeni,' and the 
'Fideles' ? What was the ' Missa Catechumenorum,' and the ' Missa 
Fidelium' ? And why so called ? Were the two Sacraments only, 
or were some other rites, called the ' Mysteries' ? Are these then of 
equal worth with the two Sacraments ? 



QUESTIONS. 225 

PAET THE SECOND. 

CHAPTER I. 

Can we justly attribute it to Christianity that the Eoman empire 
was so speedily broken up ? If not, to what other causes? Give a 
general idea of the political changes from the fourth to the ninth 
centuries ? What bishops were called Metropolitans ? And which 
were called Patriarchs f Name the three chief Patriarchates? 
And when were two others added ? Were there still some churches 
which were exempt from the jurisdiction of the patriarchs? If you 
recollect any examples, name them. From what civil division of 
the empire was the idea of these ecclesiastical divisions taken ? A 
serious heresy now broke out, with whom did it originate ? What 
measures were adopted by the Church? Who ordered a council of 
the whole church to be assembled from east and west ? What w T as 
such a council called ? Where was it held ? And when ? There 
was still some dispute on the use of a particular word, do you re- 
member what the word w r as ? W T hat did some of the eastern 
bishops object ? What bishop was the most remarkable defender 
of the orthodox or Catholic doctrine concerning the true nature of 
the Second Person ? What was the end of Arius ? Did the dis- 
putes continue after the decisions of the council? What subsi- 
diary councils were held, and what accommodation was made ? 
Which was the more popular party, the Arian or the Catholic ? 

CHAPTER II. 

Who now introduced a new error, touching the person of the 
Son ? What was the error of Macedonius ? And of what was Nes- 
torius charged ? and Eutyches ? What councils w r ere held in con- 
demnation of their respective errors ? By whom was the Council of 
Constantinople called ? and when ? What addition was then made 
to the Xicene Creed ? Under what emperor w T as the Third General 
Council of Epliesus held ? and when ? What title was there given 
to the Blessed Virgin ? Under whom was the Third General Council 
called, and when? What famous letter was read? and what rank 
was then given to the bishops of Constantinople ? What addition 
was made to their jurisdiction ? Have we any sign that the bishops 
of Rome already affected a kind of supremacy ? What was the 
Henoticoji of the emperor Zeno ? What were the Three Chapters ? 
What further indications have we of the same ambitious views, 
in the conduct of pope Zosimus ? Were the decrees of the council 
of Sardica successfully pleaded by that pope? What were the 
opinions of Pelagi us? Who was his most powerful and successful 
antagonist? And who were the other most eminent doctors on the 
orthodox side ? What led to the principal heresies we have named ? 



326 QUESTIONS. 



CHAPTER III. 

What circumstance renders it probable that Nestorius was un- 
justly used ? What was the chief point of difference between the 
Catholic and the Nestorian, or Chaldcean church? Is it certain 
that on this head the Nestorians judged amiss ? Into what sect did 
the Eutycheans degenerate? What peculiar difficulties had the 
eastern churches to contend with, from which the western was 
exempt ? What circumstances led to the schism of the Bonatists 
in Africa ? What steps were taken to bring them to a right mind ? 
What were the consequences of this unhappy faction ? What other 
causes led to the downfal of the church in Africa ? In what places 
was a remnant of Christians left ? What was the Coptic church ? 
And why were they called Jacobites ? What were the principal 
Jacobite communions ? Who were called Melchites ? To whom 
did Armenia owe its conversion ? and to what communion did the 
Armenians incline ? Where was their chief settlement ? And where 
that of the Maronites ? Of what church were Nisibis and Seleucia 
the metropolitan sees ? Of what church was the Christian settle- 
ment in Malabar an offset ? And what are they called ? Give the 
history of the two sects, (1) of the Paulicians, (2) of the Mani- 
cheans ? 

CHAPTER IV. 

When did Christianity make its way among the Goths ? Name 
a few examples, and especially of the female sex ? Are there any of 
the latter to whom, in particular, the conversion of any great countries 
seems chiefly attributable ? What was the religion of the Vandals 
in Spain? And what the consequence, as it regards the connexion 
of that country with Rome ? Who were the next invaders of Spain ? 
and with what success ? How was it faring in the meantime with 
these British isles ? Who were Lupus and Germanics ? Who was 
Palladius ? Who was called the Apostle of Ireland ? Relate any 
incidents in the life of St. Patrick ? Of what was he the first arch- 
bishop ? Name some other eminent saints of that period ? When 
and to whom was Augustine sent a.d. 596? Who sent him? 
Were there any Christian churches in Britain before Augustine 
came ? Name some very ancient church in Canterbury before the 
time of Augustine ? And what Christian queen did he find there ? 
What other proof have we of a much earlier church having sub- 
sisted than that which was planted by Augustine ? Whom did the 
Britons regard as their metropolitan bishop at that time? What 
reception did they give to Augustine at a council near Worcester? 
A junction at length took place between the British and Anglo- 
Saxon churches ; by whose influence was it chiefly brought about ? 
and when? What was the history and character of Theodore? 
And of his companion, Adrian? Did the popes venture much on 
the strength of this union? Mention two or three points, upon 
which there was a marked and decided difference between the 



QUESTIONS. 227 

British and the Roman usage? Were there monks in Britain 
before this time ? What special good was effected by Theodore ? 
Do we find satisfactory marks that our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
paid attention to their religious duties ? Name some of their more 
remarkable characters? Who was Elf ric? In the homilies of 
Elfric, written by special approbation for the use of the clergy, do 
we find any support to the modern views of transubstantiation, or 
the contrary? Can you name any eminent missionaries of the 
British church in the seventh century ? 



CHAPTER V. 

What was the political condition of Rome under the Exarchate ? 
When did the popes shake off the yoke of the eastern emperors ? 
And upon what occasion ? What were the mutual services of Pepin 
and the popes ? When were the States of the Exarchate handed 
over to the Roman see ? When was Charlemagne crowned emperor 
of the West ? Relate the causes and progress of the Iconoclast 
controversy, which has given its name to the eighth century ? Who 
was Irene ? What was done at the second council of Nice ? and 
when was it held? Was there any other council that had just 
passed an exactly opposite decree, and that might equally be called 
a general council? Which side was taken by any subsequent 
councils which you may remember ? What celebrated council was 
called by Charlemagne at Francfort ? And when ? Quote a 
famous declaration of Gregory the Great, regarding the proper use 
of images in churches, applicable particularly to those times, when 
reading and writing were confined to the few. Having just 
noticed the seventh council, called ' General,' what was the occasion 
of the fifth and sixth general councils before this ? Do they afford 
us any fresh illustration of our former assertion, that the growing 
pretensions to supremacy on the part of the popes were quite a new 
thing? What was the occasion of the council called Quinisextf 
And what rank does it hold with the Greek and eastern churches ? 
Does it go by any other name ? 

CHAPTER VI. 

We spoke of Charlemagne being crowned at Rome ; did he take 
any active part in reforming the Church ? Did he take order for 
the revision of copies of the Scripture ? What other benefits did 
he confer on the Church ? What privileges on the clergy ? What 
were the three earlier classes of monks ? When did St. Basil found 
a new order in the east ? When did St. Benedict found a new order 
in the west ? What was the most ancient discipline, or mode of 
living, among the monks ? What was prescribed by the new ' rule 
of St. Benedict'? What reform did Charlemagne endeavour to 
enforce upon the several orders? Do you remember another 
St. Benedict ? Mention some eminent founders of monasteries in 



228 QUESTIONS. 

France? Who were the Augustines ? And who the Carthusians f 
the Cistercians f and the monks of St. Clugni f Have the monks 
degenerated most in the eastern or in the western church ? 

CHAPTER VII. 

What different schools of theology do you remember to have read 
of? In what article of the Nicene Creed was there a difference 
between the Greek and the Latin church ? Is it known when this 
article was first inserted in that creed? Who introduced auricular 
confession ? And was it an innovation on the practice of the pri- 
mitive church? There was an equally important innovation 
coming on, regarding the doctrine of Christ's presence in the 
sacred elements of bread and wine ; by what name was the new 
doctrine called ? Who advanced the new views in some celebrated 
work ? Who opposed them ? Was the authority of Rabanus 
Maurus entitled to our respect ? How can you account for another 
rising innovation, in the Divine honours which began to be paid to 
the Blessed Virgin Mary f What was the remark of St. Augustine 
on the needless multiplication of church ceremonies ? These many 
innovations called up many an honest reformer, though they usually 
remonstrated in vain ; can you mention me the names of a few? 
Will you further mention two spurious documents, which eminently 
served at this time to prop up the assumed authority of the popes, 
and which, therefore, they pretended to be genuine works? In 
what estimation are the ' False Decretals,' and the ■ Donation of 
Constantine' to be held ? 



PAET THE THIED. 

CHAPTER I. 

You before mentioned the increase of jurisdiction given to the 
patriarchate of Constantinople at the fourth general council of 
Chalcedon, what new sources of jealousy sprung up between that 
and the Roman see ? Who affected the title of « Universal Bishop' ? 
Who ultimately gained it ? When did the schism become complete 
between the eastern and western Churches ? Who profited by the 
distracted condition of the Church in the eleventh century to raise 
himself to supreme spiritual authority? Besides the supreme 
spiritual authority, did not Gregory VII. affect also a temporal 
supremacy ? What were his principal measures? What had former 
bishops of Rome done towards advancing the same claims to supreme 
authority ? What century was famous for the success they met 
with in enforcing such claims? What were the accidental advan- 
tages in the early condition of the Church of Rome ? What does 
Iremeus say in allusion to this subject ? And how do his remarks 



QUESTIONS. 229 

bear upon the claims afterwards set up? Did not the Roman 
church very much lose its original advantages ? What reception 
did the claims of Hildebrand meet with in general ? And what 
from William the Conqueror ? Relate the humiliating penance to 
which Gregory subjected the emperor, Henry IV., at Canosa ? Was 
Gregory justified in claiming the exclusive right of investiture ? 
Was it a sufficient plea, when he alleged the necessary 'unity of the 
church' ? Has more of union or of tf& union resulted from the pre- 
tensions of the Romish church ? Where did the evil begin ? And 
what appears to be the remedy ? 

CHAPTER II. 

At what council was the question of Investitures finally settled ? 
And how long had the struggle lasted ? What pope followed up 
the measures of Gregory with the greatest vigour ? By what new 
exercises of authority was his pontificate marked ? Explain what 
was meant by ' provisions' ? * reservations' ? and what was the force 
of an ' interdict'? What emperor fell under the denunciations of 
Innocent III. ? Did religion appear to be the real ground of their 
differences ? On which side was there the greatest provocation ? 
Give an example of this. What pontiffs continued the war with 
Frederic? By what council was the deposition of Frederic finally 
declared ? Was the papacy now at the height of its glory ? What 
was afterwards the haughty language of Boniface ? 



CHAPTER III. 

The British and Anglo-Saxon churches having been united under 
Theodore, what were they celebrated for ? Was the learning intro- 
duced by Theodore long kept up ? What hindered it ? What was 
the favourite scheme of Odo, and afterwards of Dunstan? What 
monastic order did Dunstan introduce into this country? What 
was, meanwhile, the condition of the Irish church? How did 
Gregory VII. address the prelates and the church of that country? 
Upon the settlement of the Danish invaders, who were also 
Romanists, they were induced to set up a rival metropolitan to the 
Bishop of Armagh, whom did they first choose? And of what city 
was he bishop ? What English prelates assisted to bring over the 
ancient church of Ireland to the Romish communion? And by 
what act was the union consummated ? What English prelate was 
first made in perpetuo the papal legate in this country? What pre- 
cautions were taken by William the Conqueror to prevent causes 
being carried to Rome ? By what public acts were these commands 
of William followed up in subsequent reigns ? What was the purport 
of the ' Constitutions of Clarendon' ? 



230 QUESTIONS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

What was the ruling passion of Thomas a Becket ? What was 
his watchword? What was the obvious interpretation of it, as 
declared by Henry II. ? What was the manner of bis death ? And 
what was the penance to which the king, though not an accomplice 
to the act, submitted ? How did a new spirit show itself in another 
eminent English prelate in the next century? Were there not 
indications of the same spirit in the church of France? What, 
meanwhile, was the condition of the church in Spain? What 
advantages did the Christians gradually gain over the Moors ? Who 
was the patron saint of the Spanish ? And where was his shrine ? 
We have now gone over the principal churches which were earliest 
settled in the West, can you name the exact countries and churches 
to which our attention has been called ? 



CHAPTER V. 

In the last chapter you named to me the countries where the 
church was earliest established in the West, can you next mention 
any of the more newly-formed churches in the same part ? To what 
nations was the Gospel carried through the victories of Charlemagne ? 
What ordinary means were frequently instrumental about that time 
in extending the knowledge of Christ ? Give an example in the 
conversion of Denmark ? in that of the Normans ? of Hungary ? of 
Poland? Who was the first Christian king of Hungary? Were 
similar conversions going on in the East f To whom were Cyrillus 
and Methodius sent ? Under what king did Russia first acknowledge 
Christianity ? By whom were a large number of the Tartars and 
Chinese instructed in the faith ? Who was Fr ester John f Was the 
small settlement of the St. Thomas Christians still flourishing on the 
coast of Malabar ? What layman in the south of France became 
eminent for his zeal to reform the church ? What was the abuse 
which first attracted his attention ? By what means did he seek to 
remedy the evils of the church? Were the Vaudois called after 
Peter Waldo f or did he more probably derive his patronymic from 
the Vaudois? What sects were designated by the Leonists, the 
Henricians, the Petrobrussians, the Beghards, and the Lollards f 



CHAPTER VI. 

What occasioned the Crusades ? Give some particulars of the 
first Crusade, and who was most active in promoting it ? What 
were the three ' Military Orders,' founded about this time ? Who 
was the first Latin king of Jerusalem ? Who advised the second 
Crusade ? Who were the principal leaders ? What occasioned it ? 
Did it answer the expectations of its advisers? Who were the 
leaders in the third Crusade ? and with what result ? What was 



QUESTIONS. 231 

the remarkable termination of the fourth Crusade ?' How long did 
the 'Latin Emperors' reign at Constantinople? What were the 
principal events of the fifth, sixth, and seventh of these « Holy "Wars' ? 
When was Ptolemais taken ? and with whom did the victory thus 
remain ? Whose interests were chiefly, if not exclusively, promoted 
by the Crusades ? What new compensation for past sins was now 
allowed or enjoined by the Romish church ? What was the internal 
state of that church, and what was the testimony of its own 
members ? 

CHAPTER VII 

What were some of the advantages of the original institution of 
monastic establishments ? Who were the ' Minorites,' or ' Fratri- 
celli'? What other division of the Franciscan order took place? 
What was the general character of the period from Charlemagne to 
the Crusades ? Which were pre-eminently the ' dark ages' ? What 
order rose during all that time in wealth and eminence ? Were 
their enormous possessions, on the whole, honourably acquired ? As 
the ninth and tenth centuries were remarkable for the elevation of 
the episcopal order to secular rank and distinction, by whose 
elevation were the following centuries distinguished ? Upon whose 
authority did the popes encroach ? What prerogatives were handed 
over to them by the suppression of the metropolitan bishops ? What 
were the chief speculative questions that became agitated during 
this period? You before related the controversy between Radbert, 
Ratram, and other eminent writers, on the doctrine of the Real 
Presence, can you tell me by whom this question was subsequently 
revived? How was Berenger received by Pope Gregory VII.? 
Did not Gregory himself waver upon this question ? Did he prefer 
the expressions proposed in a council at Rome, or the simple 
expressions of Scripture ? Is it not easily accounted for, that the 
Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation should have been so favour- 
ably regarded by the clergy ? What was the end of Berenger ? 
What more do you know of * indulgences' ? To whom was their 
sale committed ? Try and give a full definition of the same in the 
words of Tetzel himself ? What may be justly inferred ? 



PAET THE FOUETH. 

CHAPTER I. 

To what kind of wars was the name of Crusade now transferred ? 
Who took the part of the Albigenses ? Who were the two legates 
employed by the pope ? Which of the mendicant orders next took 
the lead ? What part was taken by Philippe Auguste of France ? 
What general did he employ ? What was the constitution of the 



232 QUESTIONS. 

board of inquisitors ? What conditions of peace were at last made 
by the seventh count of Thoulouse? From what sources was the 
papal exchequer fed, after the Crusades came to an end ? Whose 
institution was the Jubilee? How often to be repeated? What 
number of pilgrims flocked to Eome ? How was the period of the 
Jubilee afterwards altered ? How may we regard such pilgrimages ? 

CHAPTER II. 

How were the Eastern churches affected towards the Crusades? 
After the fourth Crusade, were the rites of the Greek religion 
interrupted ? Did the Easterns at all bend to the papal yoke ? or 
did they spurn it ? May we not thank them for this testimony ? 
Relate some fresh attempts on the part of the popes to impose their 
yoke. In what odour was the Latin yoke in Jerusalem and Syria, 
where it had been tried during the Crusades ? Was the West every- 
where contented with the proceedings of Rome? What tokens of 
dissatisfaction may we observe at this time in France ? Was not 
the king a very excellent man, and yet very intent upon curbing 
the ambition of the Roman court ? What measure did Louis IX. 
cause to be enacted ? And what was the chief purpose of the 
' Pragmatic Sanction' ? Does it not appear that Rome had become 
a temporal ' court' rather than a Christian church, and that so 
Louis IX. regarded it? What fresh contests ensued between the 
temporal and spiritual power ? What was the character of Boniface 
VIII. ? What was the tenour of his celebrated bull, called ' Unam 
Sanctam' ? What was his end ? You stated in the last part, that 
the acts of William the Conqueror, and the ■ Constitutions of 
Clarendon,' were very stringent against papal encroachments on the 
liberty of the land ; — what fresh statutes were passed in England 
in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.? What celebrated 
massacre took place of the French in Sicily about this time ? And 
to what may it be attributed ? 

CHAPTER III. 

What effect on religion may be expected from the cultivation of 
the intellect ? To whom was learning chiefly confined at that time ? 
What studies did the Trivium embrace ? What did the Quadrivium ? 
Did the revival of Roman law produce any effect ? And what led 
to this? What author was become the great standard of the 
schools ? What do we mean by the ' Schoolmen' ? And who were 
the most eminent authorities ? What was the celebrated work of 
Peter Lombard? And what was its express object? What was 
the equally celebrated work of Thomas Aquinas ? What were the 
quaint names by which these doctors became familiarly known ? In 
what estimation was the Biblical School of Divinity held about that 
time? How was real science regarded? Give an example in 
Roger Bacon? What universities now rose to eminence ? What is 
the celebrity of the painters of that period ? Of the architects ? 



QUESTIONS. 233 

And what has architecture been elegantly called ? May we not 
even at that time observe a certain school, who were desirous of 
reforming the errors and abuses into which the church had unhappily 
fallen ? Give any names that you can remember of such. 

CHAPTER IV. 

After the death of Boniface VIII., did Nogaret relent? What 
happened? What does this indicate ? What was the next aim of 
the king of France ? Did he succeed in persuading the popes to 
settle in France? In what city did they reside? What other 
scheme had the king in view ? What was the unfortunate end of 
the Templars ? How many popes reigned at Avignon ? On the 
death of Benedict XI., at Rome, who next succeeded ? What was 
the consequence of his election ? Who was chosen in opposition to 
Urban VI,? What was Urban's character? How does Sismondi 
describe him ? Who succeeded in the Roman line of popes ? And 
who in the Avignon line ? When, then, did the * Great Western 
Schism' commence ? By what means was it proposed to bring it to an 
end ? Did the rival popes consent to an accommodation ? What 
line of conduct did the kingdom and church of France pursue ? 
Were they, then, absolutely without any acknowledged head ? What 
course was next proposed ? 

CHAPTER V. 

Were the rival popes inactive, while the council of Pisa was 
assembling ? What was the first act of the council ? After deposing 
the two rival popes, whom did they next elect ? What council was 
next called ? And who was induced to call it ? How many popes 
were deposed by this council ? And on whom did the choice of the 
cardinals next fall ? What did Martin V. promise he would do, in 
the event of his election ? How did he fulfil his promise ? What 
was the character of Sigismund ? What are the very just reflections 
of Mosheim on the consequences of this schism ? How did the pope 
contrive to satisfy all parties for a time ? Was not, however, some 
good effected by the Council of Constance? How long did the 
council last, and what was the parting assurance of the pope ? 

CHAPTER VI. 

Instead of granting reform, how did the Council of Constance 
deal with the reformers ? Who were the most eminent victims of 
its fury? From whom were the reforming opinions in Bohemia 
derived, and how were they imported from England ? Where was 
Wickliffe born? What rank did he obtain in Oxford ? What royal 
favour had been shown him ? Whose particular patronage did he 
enjoy besides ? What was his reply on his sick bed, when the monks 
wished him to retract before he died ? What sentence was passed 
upon him at Oxford ? By what work of his pen is he best known ? 
s2 



234 ? QUESTIONS. 

Had there been any translations of the Scriptures into the vulgar 
tongue before ? What was the effect of circulating the Scriptures 
more widely among the people ? Give Professor Blunt's description 
of this. 

CHAPTER VII. 

What council next met ? In what country had the chief dis- 
turbances taken place ? Did the parties aggrieved suffer themselves 
to be treated with ? Did their deputies attend the council ? Does 
not this show what might always be effected by a wise and timely 
moderation, and by a well regulated council of the church ? Did 
they obtain their ends ? Who showed himself for moderate counsels ? 
And who against them ? Relate a lamentable example of treachery 
and inhumanity on the side of the imperialists. How was the 
Council of Basle regarded by the pope ? What were its chief objects ? 
Did the pope succeed in suspending the council ? Where did he call 
another? Did any of the Eastern bishops attend? And with what 
result? From what year did the pope begin to annul all further 
measures which the Council of Basle might enact ? What course 
was taken by Nicolas V. ? 

CHAPTER VIII. 

What consolation have we, on witnessing the gradual decline and 
fall of Constantinople in this century ? Relate the progress of the 
Turks? What was the conduct of the allied Christian powers, 
which led to their merited defeat at the battle of Varna ? In what 
year was Constantinople taken ? And by whom ? What did 
Mahomet II. declare to be his intentions upon Rome itself? Did 
the church of the East altogether fall together with the capital? 
Who was anxious for a new crusade ? What were the circumstances 
of the death of Pius II. ? What was the character of the popes who 
next succeeded? What new forces were mustering, more formidable 
than either Greek or Turk ? Whose birth about this time may be 
taken as an omen of the approaching conflict ? 



CHAPTER IX. 

Do you remember some eccentricities on the part of the ' Spiritual 3 
brethren, as they were called, among the Franciscans? What was 
their notion as to a 'third dispensation of the Spirit'? Name one 
or two of their more remarkable writings on this subject ? Who did 
they think was the ' Angel' in Rev. xiv. 6 ? There was about 
this time a very eminent reformer in Italy, can you tell me his 
name? What at last disenchanted the people of their enthusiasm 
for him? What was his end? Is it not to be lamented that the 
reforms required were not sooner attended to ? To what sort of 
matters, in this department, was attention chiefly bestowed ? What 
was the current notion concerning the unity of the church ? What 
consequences would have ensued, if that notion had never been 



QUESTIONS. 235 

disturbed ? "Were the reformers chiefly met by argument, or by 
abuse ? Was there, however, no prospect of any good resulting 
from the late events ? What lesson might the Schism have taught 
the church of those days ? What gave a new impetus to the side of 
the reformers? What did mature investigation teach concerning 
the nature of the church ? Was it like a tree that had a sound root, 
though many of its branches were decayed ? Or like a river which 
still runs on, though broken into many channels ? 



INDEX. 



Abelaed, p. 160. 

Abyssinia, Frumentius the first bishop of, 57. 
Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, 92. 
Adrian accompanies Theodore to England, (a.d. 660) 69. 
iELfric, see Elfric. 

iEtians, a branch of the Arians, 47, n. 
Africa, the church in the north of, causes of its decline, 57. 
Aidan, St., 63. 
Albigense3, 122, see Vaudois. 
Alcuin, friend and chaplain of Charlemagne, 68. 
Alexandria, church and patriarchate of, 1 and 3 ; celebrated school 
of, probably founded by St. Mark, 5 ; presided over by Pan- 
tamus and Origen, 16, n. 
Alfred, the state of learning in his time, 107 ; his order for translation 
of Scriptures into vulgar tongue, himself translating the Psalms, 
187, n. 
Amalasontha, a Christian queen, 62. 
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, 53, n. t 82, n. 
Anglo-Saxon church conforms to Roman, under Theodore, (a.d. 

670) 67 ; but still distinct in many essential doctrines, 68. 
Annates, 153, n. 

Anomseans, a branch of the Arians, 47, n. 
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, (a.d. 1093) 110. 
Antioch, church and patriarchate of, 4, 45 ; councils of, 19. 
Antony, St., 78. 

Apocalypse, written by St. John, in Patmos, 7 ; threatenings against 
Babylon applied by Savonarola and spiritual Franciscans to 
Rome, 208-9. 
Apollinaris denies perfect human nature of our Lord; 48 ; con- 
demned by council of Constantinople, (a.d. 381) 49. 
Apologies, or treatises in defence of Christianity, 24. 
Apostles, the names and labours of the twelve, 4 — 7 ; their death an 
important £era in the history of the church, 14; the Apostles' 
Creed, 8. 
Apostolic, the fathers so called, 14, n. 
Aquinas, and the ' Sum of Divinity,' 160. 
Architecture, ' the literature of middle ages,' 164. 
Aristides, his apology, 24. 
Aristotle, much studied in the schools, 160. 

Arius denies the perfect divine nature of our Lord, 45 5 condemned 
by council of Nice, (a.d. 325) ib.j his untimely end, 47. 



INDEX. 237 

Armenians, the church of, 58. 

Arnold of Brescia, 165. 

Ascetics, an early sect, their description, 17. 

Assemanni, historian of the eastern churches, 58. 

Athanasius, St., bishop of Alexandria, his zeal against the Arians ; 

persecution, fortitude, and ultimate triumph, 47. 
Athanasian, creed so called, to whom ascribed, 52, n. 
Athenagoras, apology of, 24. 
Augustine, St., bishop of Hippo, life and writings of, 34, n. ; his 

eminent authority, 82, n. 
Augustine, the Benedictine monk and missionary to East Angles, 

64, 67 ; his reception at the council of Worcester, 65-6. 
Avignon, the recess, so called, 166-169 ; purchase of the city, ib. ; 

the seven popes who reigned there, (a.d. 1305-1378) ib. 

B abacus, archbishop of Seleucia, 59. 

Bacon, Roger, 163. 

Baptism, early mode of administration, 3S ; infant-baptism, ib. ; 

baptism of heretics, how far admissible, 39 ; Justin Martyr's 

account of, 38. 
Baradaeus, see Jacobus. 
Bar-Hebrseus, 5S. 
Barsumas, bishop of Nisibis, 59. 

Basil, St., or ' the Great,' 52, n. ; the order instituted by, 78. 
Basilides, the Gnostic, 15. 
Basle, the council, (a.d. 1431) 7. 

Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, (a.d. 1162-1170) 112-115. 
Bede, 'the venerable,' the father of English church history, 6S ; 

translated Scriptures into Anglo-Saxon, 187, n. 
Benedict, St., of Nursia, the founder of the order called by his 

name, 79 ; of Aniane, 80. 
Benedictines, the 'rule' of this order, 79 ; subdivisions of, 80. 
Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, and instrumental in conversion of her 

subjects, 62, 64. 
Bible, see Scriptures, translation of, by Wickliffe, 187. 
Biblical divinity falls into disrepute, 160, 162. 
Bishop, the name originally shared by the Presbyters, or second 

order in the sacred ministry, 8 ; the office distinct from the 

beginning, ib. ,• and of Apostolic institution, ib. 
Bonaventura, 'the seraphic doctor,' 160. 
Boniface III., see 'Popes,' a.d. 606. 
Boniface VIII., see * Popes,' a.d. 1294. 
British Church, probably founded by St. Paul, 5 ; followed Greek 

more than Latin usage, 85 ; subject to metropolitan of Caerleon- 

upon-Usk, ib. ; rejected certain decrees of Chalcedon, ib. ; and 

image-worship (a.d. 792), 67 ; united under Theodore with 

Anglo-Saxon Church, 106. 
Bradwardine, archbishop of Canterbury, 164. 

Canonici, or ' Canons regular,' an order ascribed to St. Augustine, 80. 
Canterbury, archbishops of, St, Augustine (a.d. 597-605), the first 



238 INDEX. 

archbishop, 64-67; Theodore '(a.d. 670), 67, 106; Odo (A.D. 
938), 107; Dunstan (A.D. 959-988), 107, 108; Lanfranc (A.D. 
1070), Anselm (A.D. 1093) 110; Becket (A.D. 1162-1170), 112- 
115; Bradwardine (a.d. 1349), 164; Courtney (a.d. 1381), 
185 ; Arundel (A.D. 1396), 157, n. 

Cardinals, history of the college of, 97, n. ; election of popes com- 
mitted to, by Nicolas II., 97 ; adopt the red bonnet by decree 
of council of Lyons (A.D. 1245), 105. 

Carpocrates, the Gnostic, 15. 

Catholic, not Roman, 21 ; proper meaning and use of this term, 2 ; 
adopted to distinguish the orthodox from other communions, 
19, 20, see 'Church.' 

Centuries, prevailing character of eighth and three following, 75, n. 

Cerdo, the Gnostic, 15. 

Ceremonies, the undue multiplication of, condemned by St. Augus- 
tine, 83, 85. 

Cerinthus, his heresy, 15. 

Cerularius, see Michael. 

Chaldsean Church, see Babacus, 59 ; and Nestorian. 

Charlemagne, reforms introduced by, 77 ; his care for the provision 
of schools, 6 ; and for the revision of copies of the Scriptures, 
ib. ; completes the conquest of the Lombards, a.d. 774; and 
confirms donation of Pepin, 71 ; is crowned at Rome a.d. 799 ; 
his visitation and reform of monasteries, 78 ; his care to evan- 
gelise the people whom he conquered, 117, 118. 

Chrysostom, St., patriarch of Constantinople (a.d. 398), 34. 

Church, its sacraments and orders, 8-13 ; 41, 42 ; its regular times 
and places of assembly, 9 ; its first lineaments, 13 ; its unity, 
100; 215-16; orthodoxy and Catholicity, see ' Catholic ;' Cy- 
prian on the unity of, 21 ; not constituted under one supreme 
head at Rome, but subsisting in independent national com- 
munions, united by a common faith, and mutual good under- 
standing, 21, 51,100, 115-16, 136, 151, 196-7; compared to 
wheat and tares, 91; compared to tree with many branches, 
and to river with many mouths, 215 ; its various branches in 
East and West (the eastern churches being the earliest) ; 
1, the Church of Jerusalem ; 2, of Antioch ; 3, of Alexandria ; 
4, of Rome ; 5, of Constantinople ; (these five were called the 
FIVE PATRIARCHATES, 44, 45 ;) later eastern branches, the Nes- 
torian or Chaldaean, 54, 59; the Coptic and Armenian, 58; 
the Jacobites (a) of Antioch, (b) of Alexandria, ib. ; later western; 
the Church of France, 25, 62, 115: the Church of Spain, 62, 
116 ; the Church of Ireland, 63, 108, 109 ; the early British, 
63, 106-7; the Anglo-Saxon, 67, 68, symbolising with the 
modern Anglican more neariy than with the Roman, particu- 
larly as against transubstantiation, 69; further extension 
through the labours of eastern missionaries in Abyssinia, 57 ; in 
India, 121 ; in Bulgaria, 119 ; China and Tartary, 120 ; Russia, 
ib. ; further extension by western missionaries in Sweden and 
Norway, 119; in Denmark, ib.; in Switzerland, 69; Poland, 
119 ; Hungary and Bohemia, ib.; rupture between East and 



INDEX. 239 

West, causes which led to, 92 ; final separation of the churches 
(a.d. 1054), under Michael Cerularius, 92-3 ; in spite of renewed 
attempts to impose the papal yoke, 151, 195, 197, 200. 

Circumcelliones, 56. 

Claude, bishop of Turin and reformer, Cent. IX., 86. 

Clergy, exemptions of, granted by Charlemagne, 77 ; marriage of 
agreeable to primitive custom, and allowed by eastern churches, 
76 ; do. by ancient British, 67 ; do. specified in canons of 
Quinisext council, 76 ; forbidden by Gregory VII., 97. 

Clotilda, a Christian queen, and instrumental in conversion of 
France, 62. 

Colman, St., an Irish saint, 64. 

Columb, St., of Iona, 63. 

Confession, how practised in early church, 12 ; public and private; 
private, or auricular, introduced by pope Leo the Great, 83; 
enjoined by fourth council of Lateran, to be made at least once 
a year, 210, n. 

Confirmation, grounded on Acts viii. 14 — 17, 11. 

Constance, council of (a.d. 1414), 175 — 183. 

Constantine, the Great, conversion of, 31; 'Donation' of, the so 
called, a forgery of later times, 33, 87. 

Constantinople, council of, see Council; made the seat of Patri- 
archate ; raised to equality of rank with Rome, 50. 

Coptic Church, account of, 58, n. 

Councils, the first so called, Acts xv.; diocesan and provincial, 46 ; 
provincial to meet twice a year, 35, 46 ; use and advantage of, 
82; frequent under Charlemagne and successors, 115, 116; 
their salutary working, when properly constituted, 193 ; early 
eastern, examples of; at Antioch (a.d. 240), 19; at Car- 
thage, 21, 51; at Seleucia (a.d. 359), 47 ; early western, 
examples of; at Illyberis (a.d. 305), 74 ; at Aries (a.d. 314), 
28, 63; at Sardica (a.d. 347), 51 ; at Rimini (a.d. 359), 47 ; 

5 those called general or cecumenical, the first six : — 

A.D. 

I. The council of Nice 325 . . . p. 46. 

II. „ Constantinople , . . 381 ... 49. 

III. „ Ephesus 431 .. . ib. 

IV. „ Chalcedon 481 . . . ib. 

V. The 2nd council of Constantinople . 553 ... 75. 

VI. The 3rd „ Constantinople . 680 ... ib. 
Later eastern councils; Trullo, or Quinisext (a.d. 692), 
76 ; the fourth of Constantinople (a.d. 754), 73; esteemed by 
Greeks the Vllth general ; later western, or Latin, the 
second of Nice (a.d. 786), called by the Latins the Vllth 
general, 73 ; council of Worcester, 65 ; of Frankfort (a.d. 794), 
73, 115 ; of Paris (a.d. 824), 74 ; of Placentia and Clermont 
(A.D. 1095), 126, 139 ; of Worms (a.d. 1122), 101 ; the IVth 
Lateran (a.d. 1215), 84, w., 103 ; of Lyons (a.d. 1245), 105 ; 
of Vienne (a.d. 1311), 152, 167; of Pisa (A.D. 1409), 174; of 
Constance (A.D. 1414), 175—183; of Basle (a.d. 1431), 192— 
196 ; of Ferrara (A.D. 1439), 197 ; of Mantua (A.D. 1459), 204; 
decree of council of Constance, to hold new general councils of 



240 INDEX. 

the church every ten years, SO ; decree of council of Constance, 
forbidding cup to laity, 191, 211. 

Creed, The Apostles, 9, 36 ; the Nicene, enlarged at the second general 
council of Constantinople, and properly drawn up by Gregory 
Nazianzem, 49 ; ■ Filioque,' when added, S2; the Athanasian, 
not by St. Athanasius, but later in the fifth century, 52, n. 

Crusades, by what occasioned, 124-5; by whom encouraged, 130, 
150 ; disgust created by, among the Greek and eastern 
churches, 151-2 ; the name transferred to wars against the 
Albigenses, and to the systematic persecution of heretics, 145. 

Cyprian, St., bishop of Carthage, 21. 

Dailli, Peter, of the new school of divines in the fifteenth century, 
with Gerson, Clemangis, &c, 215, n. 

Dante, 165. 

Deacons, the second order in the ministry, 8. 

Dead, prayers for, their first introduction and use, 12, 40. 

Decretals, of Isidore, otherwise called the false decretals, 87, 137. 

Demiurge, the supposed creator of the Gnostics, 14. 

Doctors, the 'Angelic,' the 'Seraphic,' &c, names given to Aquinas, 
Bonaventura, &c, 160. 

Dominic, the founder of Dominican order, 131 ; he assisted to found 
the Inquisition, 147. 

Dominicans, itinerant preachers, and a Mendicant order, 13 4, 147. 

Donatist, occasion of the African schism so called, 56. 

Duns Scotus, a famous schoolman of the Franciscans, 160. 

Dunstan, St., archbishop of Canterbury (a.d. 968); introduced Do- 
minican orders into England, 107; his early propensity to 
affect miracles, ib.; he is banished the court on suspicion of 
jugglery, 108. 

Easter-day, very early observed in the primitive church, 10 ; dis- 
putes about, 36. 

Eastern churches, see Church; their chief rules of discipline 
laid down by Quinisext council, 76; do not forbid marriage 
of priests, ib. ; jealousies fomented between them and the 
western churches by the partition of jurisdiction awarded by 
council of Chalcedon, 92 ; indisposed to crusades, 150 ; steadfast 
in opposition to papal supremacy, 151, 200 ; separation of Greek 
from western churches consummated (a.d. 1054), under Michael 
Cerularius, 93 ; monks of, remarkable for retaining primitive 
habits, 81. 

Ebionites, account of, IS. 

Edessa, burial-place of St. Thomas, 5 ; afterwards an episcopal 
see, 58. 

Elfric, an eminent writer and bishop of the Anglo-Saxon church, 
69 ; homilies of, a witness against transubstantiation ib. 

Encratites, and Continentes, account of, 17. 

England, Church of, the Primitive, 63, 106-7 ; Parliament of, and 
statutes of Prejnunire and Provisors, 157, see ' British Church.' 

Enthymius, a monk of Palestine, 78. 

Errors, rapid growth of, in Cent. VIII., 83, 87. 



INDEX. 24] 

Eunomians, a branch of the Arians, 47, n. 

Eusebius, of Caesarea, and author of ecclesiastical history in time of 

Constantine, 33 ; Eusebius of Nicomedia, ib. 
Eutyches, accused of 'confounding the persons,' 49. 
Exarchate, obnoxious to the popes of Rome, 70. 
Excommunication, 11 j the greater and less, 37 ; wrongly made a 

civil penalty, 83. 

Faculties, the five so called, 159, n. ; of philosophy, of what con- 
sisting, ib. 

Faithful, or Fideles, and Catechumeni, the two divisions in the 
congregation, 37, n. 

Fasts, those of the primitive church, 11. 

Feasts, or festivals of the primitive church, 10. 

Filioque, when added to the Nicene creed, 82. 

Finian, St., an Irish saint, 64. 

Fitz Ralph, archbishop of Armagh and reformer, 164. 

France, the church early established in, 25, 28, 62 ; its alliance with 
Rome by treaty of Pepin with the pope, 7 1 ; protests against 
image-worship, by council called at Paris, 115; preserved her 
independence for some time, ib. ; exerted it on several later 
occasions, 166, 172, 198. 

Frederick the Second, of Germany, Ins wars with the popes, 103- 
105. 

Gall, St., missionary from Great Britain, 69. 

Gerson, see ' Dailli.' 

Ghibeline, see • Guelph.' 

Gnostic, the false philosophy so called, 14. 

Godeschalcus, his opinions, and the controversy ensuing, 137. 

Greek Church, distinction between them and Latin, 151, 152, n. ; 

does not worship images, 75, n.; nor forbid marriage of clergy, 

76 ; its spread into Bulgaria, 119 ; and Russia, 203. 
Gregory, the Enlightener (a.d. 342), 58; of Nyssa and Nazianzem,' 

52, 53, n. ; Gregory the Great sends Augustine to East Anglia, 

64-66 ; see 'Popes.' 
Guelph and Ghibeline, the wars of, 103. 

Henoticon, proposed by Emperor Zeno, 50. 

Henricians, the name of a sect, 122. 

Henry II. of England, his quarrel with Becket, 112. 

Henry III. of Germany, nominates three popes, 100. 

Henry IV. of ditto, does penance at Canosa, 99. 

Hermit, Paul of Thebais, the first, 2S; others, 55; see * Symeon 

Stylites.' 
Hilarion, introduced Benedictine rule into France, 80. 
Hilary, St., bishop of Poictiers, and celebrated writer, 53, n.; 

82, n. 
Hincmar, 116. 
Homo-ousios, and Homce-ousios, the famous dispute on these 

terms, 46. 



242 INDEX. 

Iconoclasts, occasion and history of the party so called, 5. 

Ignatius, St., martyrdom of, 14, 24. 

Images, proper use of, 74; remarks of Gregory the Great, 74. 

Indegonda, a Christian queen of the Goths, 62. 

Indulgences, 131, 140, 141 ; prodigal multiplication of, by Boniface 

IX., 168, 171. 
Inquisition, account of, 146, 147; in Spain, 206. 
Interdict, account of, 102. 
Investitures, disputes about, 99, 100 ; settlement of ditto by council 

of Worms (a.d. 1122), 101. 
Iona, seat of the celebrated monastery of St. Columb, 63, 68. 
Irene, the empress, her support of the image-worship and her 

cruelty, 72. 
Irenaeus, St., opposes Victor, 36 ; his celebrated passage on the 

respect due to the Roman see explained, 95, n, 
Irish Church, its antiquity, 108 ; slower than British to submit to 

the Roman obedience, 106. 
Isidore, see Decretals. 

Jacobus Barad^eus, gives name to Jacobites, 58. 

Jacobites, see Jacobus. 

James, St., (probably James the Less,) bishop of Jerusalem, his mar- 
tyrdom, 6. 

Jerome, St., 53, n., 82, n. ; lives at Bethlehem, where he founds a 
monastery, 78. 

Jerusalem, the city taken by Romans (a.d. 71), 3 ; attempt under 
Julian to rebuild the temple, ditto ; became the mother-church 
of Christendom, 5 ; and a patriarchate, 44 ; famous resort of 
pilgrims, 124. 

Jews, their violent opposition to Christianity ; yet many converts 
from among them, 2. 

Joachim, the abbot of Calabria, 207. 

John, St., banished to Patmos, 7, 22. 

Jovinian, a reformer, Cent. IV., 85. 

Jubilee, first institution of, at Rome (a.d. 1300), 148; period of 
repetition, 169. 

Justin Martyr, life and writings of, 33, n.j his martyrdom, 25. 

Kilian, St., a British missionary, 69. 

Knights Templars and Hospitallers, see * Monks.' 

Lactantius, 34, n. 

Laity, forbidden to communicate in both kinds by Council of 

Constance, 191, 211. 
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury (a.d. 1070), 110. 
Lapsed, treatment of, 37. 
Latin, distinction between Greek and Latin churches, 151, 152 ; 

dominion of Latins, disgust occasioned by, among the Eastern 

churches, 152. 
Learning, state of, in Centuries VII. to XII., 159, 160. 
Ditto in Centuries XII. to XIV. 161—164. 



INDEX. 243 

Lent, see ' Quadragesimal.' 

Libellatici, persons so called, 37, n. 

Lindisfarne, famous monastery of, 68. 

Litchfield, proposed metropolis of Mercia, 107, n. 

Lollards, meaning of the term, 122. 

Louis, St., or Louis IX. of France, led the sixth and seventh 

Crusades, 179 ; promulged the Pragmatic Sanction, 153. 
Loyola, see Luther. 

Luidhard, priest to Bertha, queen of Ethelbert, 64. 
Lupus and Germanus, 63. 
Luther, born a.d. 1483 ; in same year as Loyola, 206. 

Macedonius, denies divinity of Holy Ghost, 49. 

3Iahomet invades Syria, and Christians of East, 57. 

III. takes Constantinople (a.d. 1453), 202. 

Mahomedan invasion of Spain, 62 ; ditto France, 44. 

Manes, his system, 17 ; descended from the Persian Magi, 61. 

Manicheans, history and tenets of, 60. 

Marcion, the Gnostic, 15. 

Marcellus accused of Sabellianism, 48, n. 

Mark, St., probably founded School of Alexandria, 5. 

Marouites, 58. 

Martin, St., of Tours, 80, n. 

Mass, canon of, arranged by Gregory the Great, 83, see Missa. 

Matilda of Tuscany, gave estates to the church of Eome, 98. 

Maur, St., 80. 

Medicine, practice chiefly limited to clergy, 163. 

Melchites, the Greek churches in the East so called, 58, n. 

Menander, the Gnostic, 15. 

Metropolitans, jurisdiction of, 44; ditto encroached upon by the 
popes, 137. 

Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople when East finally 
separated from Western Communion, (a.d. 1054,) 83. 

Palaeologus, 151. 

Millennium, early theory of, 39. 

Miracles, not to be expected when not so necessary, 29. 

Miraculous appearance of cross to Constantine, 31 j story of tongues 
cut out by order of Tyrant Huneric, 57, n. 

Missa, part of service so called, 41. 

Missions of the Eastern churches (a.d. 610 — 754), 57 — 60 ; 119 — 121 ; 
of the Western, 69, 117—119. 

Monks, early division of, into three classes, — (1) Coenobites, (2) An- 
chorets, (3) Sarabaites, 78 ; the Benedictine order in the West 
(A.D. 529), ditto, 79 ; order of St. Basil in the East (365) ; ditto, 
in Britain, many before Augustine, as at Bangor, Iona, Lindis- 
farne, 65, 68 ; Benedictines in England not till Dunstan 
(a.d. 968), 107 ; their growing ignorance, and later subdivision 
into Cistercians, Carthusians, and monks of St. Clugni, 80 ; 
lamentable decay of learning and discipline in Cent. XIII., 
161 ; ancient simplicity and frugality much more retained in 
the East, 81 ; the mendicant orders of St. Francis and St. 
Dominic, 134, 135 ; the Military orders of Knights Te?nplars, &c, 
126. 



244 index. 

Monophy sites, term explained, 55. 
Monothelites, ib. 
Mont anus, his heresy, 17. 

Mysteries, promiscuous name of Sacraments and other rites of the 
church, 42. 

Nazarenes, early sect of, 18. 

Nestorius, accused of 'confounding the substance' in the Second 
Person of the Trinity, 49 ; harshly treated, 54. 

Nestorians, the church of, also called the Chaldaean church, 54, 55 ; 
Babacus, archbishop of Seleucia, regarded as their second 
founder, Cent. V., 59; their numerous missions, 59, 120. 

Nisibis, metropolitan see of Nestorian church, and seat of patri- 
archate, 59. 

ISogaret, William de, chancellor of France, his determinate oppo- 
sition to the popes, 156. 

ISovatian, and Novatus, schismatics, 19 ; they affect extreme strict- 
ness in refusing to re-admit the lapsed, 38. 

Occam, 164. 

Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, 107. 

Oliva, Pierre d', a famous monk and commentator, 208. 

Orders, three in the primitive church, besides prophets, 8 ; the 

monastic, see Monks ; the mendicant, ib. ; the military, ib. 
Origen, famous among the fathers of the age subsequent to the 

apostolic, 16 and note ; his speculations on the intermediate 

state, 40. 
Oswald, king of Northumberland, applies to Ireland for missionaries, 

instead of successors of Augustine, 64. 
Otho the Great, of Saxony, 96. 

Pachomius, St., 78. 

Pall, first sent from Rome to Ireland, (a.d. 1150,) 109. 

Palladius, sent to Ireland, 63. 

Papal tiara, 105. 

Patrick, St., his history, 63. 

Paul, St., travelled to the West, in contradistinction to St. Peter, 

who kept more to the East, 5 ; suffers martyrdom at Rome, 

a.d. 68. 
Paul, of Samosata, first heretical bishop, 19. 
Paulicians, account of, 60. 
Patriarch, title of, when first given to the bishops of the chief metro* 

politan sees, 45; at first there were three, then Jive patriarchates, 

viz., (1) Alexandria, (2) Antioch, (3) Rome, (4) Jerusalem, 

(5) Constantinople; patriarchates of Armenia, Seleucia, or 

Babylon, &c, 59 ; see ' Constantinople,' &c. 
Pelagius, his heresy, 52, 63. 
Penance, early practice of, 57. 
Pepin conquers Lombardy (a.d. 752), and confers exarchate on 

popes, 71. 
Persecutions, the ten principal, under heathen emperors of Rome, 

viz. : — 







INDEX. 


1. 


A.D. 65, 


under 


Nero. 


o > 


„ 90, 


„ 


Domitian. 


3. 


„ 100, 


„ 


Trajan. 


•i. 


„ 126, 


)t 


Adrian. 


5. 


„ 167, 


n 


M. Aurelius Antoninus. 


6. 


„ 203, 


:> 


Septimius Severus. 


7. 


„ 236, 


„ 


Maximin. 


S. 


„ 250, 


„ 


Decius. 


9. 


„ 258, 


M 


Valerian. 


0. 


,. 303, 


„ 


Diocletian, 22—27. 



245 



Persecution of Albigenses and Vaudois, 146-148; in England, 157, 
184-190. 

Peter, St., travelled chiefly in the East, 6 ; suffered martyrdom at 
Rome, a.d. 68. 

Peter Lombard, and ■ sentences,' 160. 

Peter of Amiens, 125. 

Peterpence, 102. 

Petrarch, 165. 

Petrobrussians, who, 122. 

Philip the Fair, 154, 155, 166. 

Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (a.d. 860), charges Roman 
church with heresy, 93 ; charge retorted by the so-called eighth 
general council at Constantinople, 869, 93. 

Pilgrimages, frequent practice of, and those especially to the holy 
places at Jerusalem, 124, 125. 

Pious frauds, 84. 

Platonist School, 16. 

Polycarp, friend of St. John and martyr, 25. 

Popes, origin of the title, S9, w.; they had not precedence at first 
general council of Nice, 34, n. ; gradual assumption of au- 
thority, 94 ; that authority not recognised by the constitution 
of the primitive church, 21, 51, 100, 136, &c. ; even boldly re- 
sisted, 75 ; falsification or invention of documents to build up 
their authority, particularly in alleging a canon of the coun- 
cil of Sardica as a Nicene canon (a.d. 347), 51; and afterwards 
in the ' False Decretals,' 87 ; in the * Donation of Constantine,' 
34 ; other steps, 94 — 96, 87 ; encroach on the jurisdiction of 
the metropolitans, 136, 137; discourage provincial councils, ib.; 
pronounced universal bishops by Phocas (a.d. 606), 92 ; re- 
markable consolidation of the papacy under Nicolas I. 
(a.d. 868), 84 ; attain greatest height of authority at deposi- 
tion of Frederic II. (a.d. 1245), 105; first symptoms of de- 
cline, 156, &c. ; attempt to draw over the eastern churches, 
150, 195; names of some more particularly mentioned: — 
Anicetus and Victor, opposed by Polycarp, Irenaeus, and Poly- 
crates (a.d. 168, 196), 36, 37; Stephen, opposed by Cyprian, 
bishop of Carthage (A.D. 251), 21 ; Cornelius, opposed by Nova- 
tian, the first antipope, i.e., the first who claimed the papal 
chair against its lawful bishop (a.d. 254), 19 ; Zozimus (a.d. 
419) alleges canons of Sardica for canons of Nice, 51 ; Celestine 
(a.d. 431) sends Palladius to Ireland, 63 ; Leo the Great, other- 
wise called St. Leo (a.d. 440), first sends legate to Constant- 



346 INDEX. 

tinople, 94, n. ; first enjoins auricular confession, 83; his letter 
on the incarnation, 49 ; Felix II. (A.D. 483), his quarrel with 
Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, 92, n.j Symmachus (a.d. 
500) judged by a council of bishops at Parma, 94, n.j Boni- 
face III. receives title of ' Universal Bishop,' from Phocas (a.d. 
606), 92 ; Honorius convicted of heresy by the sixth general 
council (A.D. 680), 75; Gregory the Great, and canon of the 
mass, 83 ; sends Augustine (a.d. 596), 64, 66 ; entitles himself 
'the servant of the servants of Jesus Christ,' 66 ; Gregory II. 
rebels from eastern emperor of Constantinople (a.d. 726), 71 ; 
Zechary confirms Pepin on throne of France (a.d. 752), 71 ; 
Joan, a female pope (A.D. 855), 94, n.j Nicholas I. (A.D. 868) 
consolidates papacy, 94, n.j Benedict IX. X. (a.d. 1033, 1058), 
96, n.j Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) (A.D. 1073— 1085), 93— 100; 
his character, 96, 99 ; Adrian IV. (solitary instance of an 
English pope) (A.D. 1154), 104, n.j Innocent III., held fourth 
council of Lateran (a.d. 12] 5) ; sends Pandulph to king John 
(A.D. 1212), 101 ; other sweeping measures, 102 ; Innocent IV. 
(1245) holds first council of Lyons, and deposes Frederic II., 
105 ; Boniface VIII. (1294) his bull Unam Sanctam, 106, 155 ; 
observes the jubilee, 148; his character, 155; attack on his 
person by William de Nogaret, and death, 156 ; The Seven 
Popes of Avignon (1305 — 1378), 166 ; John XXII. accounted 
heretical on the intermediate state, 168 ; Benedict XII, Inno- 
cent VI., 168; Urban VI. (1378), and beginning of great 
western schism, 169, 170; Alexander V. elected at Pisa (1410) 
in room of two popes deposed (Gregory XII. and Bene- 
dict XIII.), 174 ; Martin V. elected at Constance (1417) in 
room of three popes deposed, 175, 176; Nicolas V. 197, 202; 
Pius II. OEneas Sylvius), 204. 

Praxeas, Noetus, and Beryllus, Sabellian teachers, 19. 

Prayers, order of, in primitive church, 41 ; for dead, 40. 

Premunire, statute of, 157. 

Priscillian, the first capitally punished for eeclesiastical offence, 48, n. 

Provisions, 102, 154. 

Provisors, statute of, 156. 

Purgatory, first notion of, 40, 85 ; remitted by indulgences, 140, 
141. 

Quadragesimal fast, consisted first of forty hours, afterwards of 

so many days, 11. 
Quadratus, a celebrated Christian apologist, 24. 
Quadrivium, the course of study comprehended in, 159. 

Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mayence, and writer against new 
doctrine of Radbert, savouring of transubstantiation (a.d. 
844), 84. 

Radbert, Paschasius, his doctrine on the real presence, 84. 

Ratram appointed to examine opinions of Radbert, and condemns 
them, 84. 

Reformers of fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, 87, &c. ; of eighth, 
Hinctnar, 116, &c. ; of twelfth century, 121, &c. ; compare 
Albigenses, Vauclois; of thirteenth, Grositte, bishop of Lincoln, 



INDEX. 247 

115, &c. ; Peter Waldo, 121 ; sundry, in France and England, 
152—156,164; in Germany and Bohemia; Luther, 206; in 
Italy, 208. 

Relics, veneration of, none mentioned in early annals of church, 12 ; 
and a dangerous practice, 13. 

Repentance of heart required in primitive church, 3. 

Reservations, term explained, 154, n., 102. 

Rome, the division of empire into east and west, 34, 44 ; fall of 
western division, ib. ; fall of eastern, 199 — 202; eminence of the 
capital gave eminence to the see, 95 ; but on rising of the new 
capital of Constantinople to equal eminence, the sees were made 
equal, 49; subject to the exarchs of Ravenna, 71; revolts 
under Gregory II. (a.d. 726), 72; continued more and more 
under the exclusive authority of the popes of Rome, 102, 3, &c. 

Roman patriarchate, see ' Church.' 

Roman-catholic : all not catholic which is Roman, 21 ; their church 
faulty by their own confession, 131, 132 -, more especially when 
it came to have three heads, 178; summary of its principal 
errors and heresies, 210, 211. 

St. Saba, 78. 

Sabellius, author of heresy of the Sabellianson the Trinity, 19, 48. 

Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, 10. 

Saints, prayers to, not sanctioned by primitive use, 12. 

Sapor, invasion of, 55. 

Savonarola, 208. 

Schism, the first memorable schism of Xovatus and Novatian, 19 ; 

of Donatists, 66; between East and West, 91, 92; the great 

Western schism, 196, &c. ; the important consequences of the 

latter, 178, 213. 
School, the Alexandrian, 16, 17 ; of theology, the several, 82. 
Schoolmen and scholastic divinity, 150. 
Scriptures, the Holy, the Hexapla of Origen, 16; the Vulgate, or 

Latin translation of Jerome, 53, n. ; copies revised by order of 

Charlemagne, 7S; frequent appeal to by early fathers, 82; 

comp. • Bible.' 
Seleucia, seat of patriarchate, 59 ; council of (a.d. 359), 47. 
Severus, bishop of Marseilles, and reformer, Cent. VI., 74, 85. 
Sicilian vespers (a.d. 1282), 157. 
Simon de Montford, leader in the wars of the Inquisition, 146 ; his 

death (a.d. 1218), 147. 
Spain, church of, early allied itself to Rome, 62 ; later history, 116. 
States of church, so called, first granted to the popes by Pepin, 72 j 

confirmed by Charlemagne, ib. 
Statute against heretics, 157; comp. ' Premunire,' &c. 
Sunday took place of Jewish Sabbath, 10. 
Supper, the Lord's, 10. 
Symeon Stylites, a famous hermit, SO, n. 
Symmachus, pope (a.d. 500), judged by a council of bishops at 

Parma, 94, n. 

Templars, institution of the order of knights so-called, 126 \ their 
fate, 167. 



248 INDEX. 

Tertullian, early Christian father, 147; next period to the apo- 
stolic, 33. 

Tetzel, his own account of indulgences, 140, 141. 

Theodelinda, 62. 

Theodora, patroness of image-worship, her cruelty, 74. 

Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (a.d. 670), unites British and 
Anglo-Saxon churches, 67. 

Theotocus, title first applied to the blessed Virgin in the council of 
Ephesus, 49; disputed by Nestorians, and justly, 54. 

Thomas (St.), the Christian settlement so-called, on the coast of 
Malabar, 59. 

Thoulouse, the counts of, 146, 118. 

Three chapters, the documents so-called, 50. 

Tiara, when first assumed by popes, 105. 

Transubstantiation first introduced by name in the fourth council of 
Lateran (a.d. 1215), S4, n. ; but in substance by council of 
Placentia, 139 ; disclaimed at first emergence (a.d. 844) by 
Rabanus, archbishop of Mayence, Ratram, and Johannes 
Scotus, 84; also by Berenger (a.d. 1050), 138, 139; and emi- 
nently by Elfric, and Anglo-Saxon church, 69. 

Turks, their advances in Syria, 124, &c. ; ditto in Europe, 200 — 
203 ; take Constantinople (a.d. 1453), and thus put an end 
to eastern Roman empire, 202. 

Ulphila, bishop of the Goths, 61. 

Unam Sanctam, the bull so-called, of Boniface VIII., 2. 

Universal bishop, this title when first assumed, 92 ; finally given to 

the bishop of Rome by Phocas the Usurper (a.d. 606), ib. 
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 107; of Paris, &c. 163. 
Urban II. presides at council of Clermont, 126 ; Urban VI. (a.d. 

1378), and beginning of great western schism, 169, 170. 

Vandals, were Arian, 62. 
Vaudois, history of, 86, 122, 145. 
Vigilantius, a reformer of fifth century, 85. 
Virgin, the blessed, divine honours paid to, 85. 

TViCKLirFE, life and times of, 181-190. 

"William the Conqueror withstands Gregory VII., 98. 

Willibrod, St. 69. 

Wimfried, St. 69. 

Zeciiary, see 'Popes,' (a.d. 752.) 

Zeno, the emperor, the henoticon, or act of union, proposed by, 50. 

Zozimus, see 'Popes,' (a.d. 419.) 



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